Indonesia, on Saturday (August 20) announced its first case of monkeypox. A 27-year-old patient returned home to Jakarta and felt feverish. He had rashes on his body.

“The tests he did on August 18 concluded that he was infected with monkeypox,” said Indonesian Health Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Syahril said as quoted by Xinhua news agency.

Currently, the medical team is tracing those who came in close contact with the patient. Indonesia is setting up more 10 polymerase chain reaction laboratories at entry points like airports and ports. The ministry said that about 10,000 monkeypox vaccines are being procured.

On July 23, the World Health Organization declared the escalating global monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern.”

Speaking at the press conference on the report of the 2nd meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee regarding the monkeypox outbreak, Ghebreyesus said that he convened the emergency committee, a month ago, to assess whether the monkeypox outbreak represented a public health emergency of international concern.He further said that during that meeting, the committee came to the conclusion that monkeypox was not represented as a public health emergency of international concern.

(With inputs from agencies)

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