With this risk, Dicky urged the government to strengthen early detection at the borders, especially for people travelling from countries with monkeypox cases or countries where the virus is endemic. According to him, the government can take steps such as checking temperature, monitoring symptoms and checking smallpox vaccine certificate.
“At the border, people from countries who report cases of monkeypox can be asked whether they have received the smallpox vaccine or not,” he said.
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Dicky also hopes that the PeduliLindung app can be expanded to show data about smallpox vaccine. This, in his view, is to confirm whether an individual has received a smallpox vaccine or not. “The data so far reveals that smallpox vaccine is quite effective in preventing monkeypox. Thus, smallpox vaccine data needs to be added to PeduliLindungi,” he added.