Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Indonesian Health Ministry reported that one case of monkeypox, or Mpox, found in Jakarta was the result of local transmission, as the sufferer had no history of overseas travel.
"The patient has no history of foreign traveling. It is a local transmission case," the ministry's Head of the Communication and Public Service Bureau Siti Nadia Tarmizi confirmed in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Tarmizi noted that the DKI Jakarta Health Service is still tracing cases of six to seven people, who had come in close contact with the patient. Apart from that, related parties are also investigating the possibility of case transmission by domestic travelers.
"We are still tracing any transmission from the close contact history of domestic travelers," she noted.
She stated that the Mpox patient is still undergoing treatment at one of the hospitals in the local area.
"The patient is being treated in good conditions. The patient is now experiencing fever along with lesions, such as scabs, papules, and vesicles, like smallpox," she remarked.
According to Tarmizi, Mpox has no longer been categorized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
"We treat it like a normal disease," she revealed.
Earlier, the Health Ministry's Directorate of Health Surveillance and Quarantine confirmed that one Indonesian national was detected with monkeypox in Jakarta on October 14, 2023.
With the discovery of this new case, there are currently two cases of monkeypox in Indonesia after the first was discovered on August 20, 2022.
In general, the number of confirmed cases of monkeypox worldwide has reached 90,618, with a death toll of 517 cases from 115 countries.
The United States is the country that reports the most number of cases, while China, Thailand, and Japan dominate in terms of the most number of cases in Asia.
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