REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated that the vaccine for monkey pox or Monkeypox (Mpox) still targets certain groups, such as people with human immunodeficiency virus or HIV.

“The Mpox vaccine we gave, Mpox is not contagious, only in situ, rarely. That's usually down to a specific group kayaking HIV. So, the ones we vaccinate in this group - that's all, and the private ones (hospitals) we will distribute later,” said Menkes met at RSCM, Jakarta, Friday (30/8/2024).

He confirmed that until now stocks of vaccines for Mpox were still safe and appealed to the public to continue to implement clean and healthy living behaviors (PHBS). “Safe, calm is calm (vaccine stocks), which is important the behavior is good, because of the HIV kayaks it (Mpox transmission),” he said.

Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Indonesia Puan Maharani revealed that the DPR together with the government also anticipated the emergence of an outbreak of Mpox in the activities of the second Indonesia-Africa Forum held in Bali on 1—3 September 2024. “And indeed I hear the government anticipates an outbreak of Monkeypox. So, we will be together, synergize for its prevention and its anticipation,” Puan said.

The Chairman of the Indonesian Society of Dermatologists and Venereologists (Perdoski) Dr Dr. Hanny Nilasari stressed the importance of a clean lifestyle to prevent the transmission of monkeypox virus (Mpox). “A healthy lifestyle by maintaining nutritional intake and hand hygiene as well as not having contact with patients with these infections, and not using items together is important to note,” Hanny said. He argued that people need to be careful and vigilant so that zoonotic diseases, which means being transmitted from animal to human then spread from human to human, do not become an outbreak.