MOH draws up five-point plan to manage monkeypox risk

KUALA LUMPUR: 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.