MOH draws up five-point plan to manage monkeypox risk

KUALA LUMPUR, May 26 (Bernama) -- The Health Ministry (MOH) has drawn up a five-point strategy to face the risk of monkeypox spreading to Malaysia.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the plan encompassed early case detection, strengthening of diagnostics, case management, and cluster/epidemic management, and increasing knowledge and awareness among the community.

"The general objective of the strategy to handle monkeypox in Malaysia is for us to prevent the entry and spread of the infection in Malaysia. So far, we have not detected any monkeypox case in Malaysia," he said at a special online press conference from Geneva today.

He said MOH had also created a ‘Health Alert monkeypox' feature in the MySejahtera app which would send out daily alerts to travellers arriving from monkeypox endemic countries or countries with monkeypox cases to monitor their health for 21 days.

"This new feature will be activated tomorrow. They will not get an HSO but will receive a pop-up alert. This is because the incubation period for monkeypox is up to 21 days," he added.

The endemic countries which have reported monkeypox cases are Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria.

The non-endemic countries which have reported monkeypox cases are Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Khairy said MOH planned to vaccinate close contacts if monkeypox infections were detected among any individuals.

He said so far there are two laboratories which can conduct monkeypox tests, namely the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) and National Public Health Laboratory (MKAK) under MOH.

"Following a proposal to have more laboratories, we will add four more MKAK in Sarawak and Hospital Langkawi for detection of the monkeypox virus," he added.

Commenting on the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva, Khairy said Malaysia had agreed to increase its contribution to the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a sign of support for the world body’s important role in offering advice on public health and emergencies.

“This is important because we want WHO to become a fit for purpose organisation. Before approval of the resolution at WHA, the Cabinet had agreed earlier to fulfil the set criterion of 20 per cent of basic budget in 2024 to 40 per cent in 2029. This shows we are a responsible member who can lead by example,” he said.

He said Malaysia was also prepared to host the WHO Global Service Centre in Cyberjaya as a voluntary contribution to the organisation.

-- BERNAMA