Health Ministry to prepare vaccines for close contacts of monkeypox cases

SHAH ALAM - The Health Ministry is preparing vaccines for close contacts of those infected with monkeypox.

This, its minister Khairy Jamaluddin said was one of the strategies in the management and control of the disease.

"We are preparing a strategy to provide vaccines to close contacts and also health workers in the event of a monkeypox outbreak in Malaysia," he said in a press conference on Thursday.

In the meantime, Khairy who is also a vice president of the 75th World Health Assembly said, as an early detection measure, alert on cases of monkeypox in the country would be implemented through a special feature in the MySejahtera application which is called the ‘Monkeypox Alert’.

He said the special feature which was expected to be activated tomorrow (Friday) will send out alerts to travellers arriving from countries with monkeypox cases and would advise them to self-isolate for 21 days.

"So (this includes) travellers from monkeypox endemic countries such as Cameroon, Central African Republic, Nigeria and also non-endemic countries where cases of monkeypox have been detected, such as Belgium, Australia, among others.

"They will not get a home surveillance and observation order (HSO) alert, but a 'pop-up alert' (warning message) instead," he said.