JAKARTA, Indonesia — A man in Indonesia has tested positive for monkeypox, making him the country’s first confirmed case of the disease, authorities said late Saturday.
Mohammad Syahril (Health Ministry spokesperson) said the 27-year-old, who lives in Jakarta’s capital, was returning from an overseas trip in August. He began to feel symptoms 5 days later, and he went to the doctor. Syahril reported that the man tested positive for monkeypox and is now being treated at home.
“This is a self-limiting disease that will disappear after 20 days if the patient does not have any preexisting conditions,” Syahril said, adding that the government for now did not see the need to implement any community-level restrictions to contain monkeypox.
The alert has been in place for Indonesia since May, when the World Health Organization asked all countries to be more vigilant after an outbreak occurred in the United Kingdom. Prior to that, monkeypox was only an endemic disease in some African countries.
Monkeypox spreads when people have close, physical contact with an infected person’s lesions, their clothing or bedsheets. Transmission may be amplified by sexual contact.
Monkeypox is usually not serious and most people can recover without treatment. However, the lesion may be very painful. In more severe cases, complications can include brain inflammation or death.
There have been over 31,000 reports of monkeypox in 90 countries. The World Health Organization declared last month that the epidemic was a public health emergency.
While monkeypox isn’t a completely new disease, the fact that it exists has long been recognized. It has also been an issue in Africa for many years.
Authorities are trying to stem the spread of this disease, even though there is a very limited supply worldwide.
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