JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia’s Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that the government will distribute the monkeypox vaccine to those who are at high risk of exposure to the disease starting from the end of this year.
“The distribution [of monkeypox vaccine] will be done at the end of this year,” Budi said at the Presidential Palace on Thursday, Aug. 25.
He said that the monkeypox vaccine will not be distributed to the entire public.
“The vaccine will be distributed to immunocompromised individuals, not the entire community. Most of the people have already received the [smallpox] vaccine in 1980,” he said.
Also read: Indonesia Detects First Case of Monkeypox Virus
Indonesian health ministry spokesperson Mohammad Syahril previously said that Indonesia would import the monkeypox vaccine, not the smallpox vaccine.
The WHO previously declared monkeypox a global health emergency. Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease transmitting from animal to animal and from animal to human.
Indonesia has recently detected the first case of monkeypox in a 27-year-old man who returned from traveling overseas. To curb the spread of this infectious disease, the government will provide 10,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine.
The Ministry of Health has not been able to provide a list of names for the monkeypox vaccine to be imported because the products will go through a recommendation from the Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM).
Currently, the monkeypox vaccines are undergoing clinical trials by BPOM and the National Immunization Expert Advisory Committee or the Indonesian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (ITAGI).
(Writer: Dian Erika Nugraheny | Editor: Krisiandi)
