TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin on Tuesday said the government will not give monkeypox vaccines for everyone as in the case of the Covid-19 vaccine. He reasoned that the monkeypox disease is not lethal and the transmission is mainly through physical contact.

"It is very difficult to transmit. It's much more difficult than Covid-19, so it's not worth it for everyone to be given the monkeypox vaccine, but it will be given to those with low immune levels," said Budi at the State Palace, Central Jakarta, August 23.

He appealed to the public not to worry too much about the monkeypox virus. "But because it's infected, it can cause a secondary infection. Well, the secondary infection that can cause death the most is if they have a secondary infection in their lungs or an infection in the brain, but the death is not due to viral infection," said Budi.

Previously, the Health Ministry confirmed the first patient of monkeypox in Indonesia on Saturday, August 20. Ministry spokesman Dr. Mohammad Syahril said the patient tested positive based on the results of the PCR examination that came out Friday night. There were 22 others who were suspected of contracting the virus but the PCR test showed negative result.

The first confirmed patient of monkeypox in Indonesia is a 27-year-old man from Jakarta. "He was confirmed positive after taking a PCR test two days earlier,” said the spokesperson.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox a global health emergency on July 23. To date, 86 countries have reported cases of monkeypox with a total of 39,708 cases and 400 deaths.

M JULNIS FIRMANSYAH

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