DOH: Close contacts of first monkeypox case still in quarantine
MANILA, Philippines — The close contacts of the country’s first case of monkeypox are still undergoing quarantine, the Department of Health said Thursday.
The DOH said the 10 close contacts of the patient—a 31-year-old individual from overseas—remain in quarantine and are asymptomatic.
"To date, there has been no new case of monkeypox in the country," the agency told reporters.
The Philippines detected its first monkeypox case last month. The patient has since recovered.
In an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel Wednesday, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the government may get access to monkeypox vaccine doses by 2023. The department is in talks with the private sector and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the procurement of shots.
The World Health Organization in July declared the outbreak a global health emergency. It said that monkeypox spreads from person to person through close contact with someone who has a monkeypox rash, including through face-to-face, skin-to-skin, mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-skin contact, including sexual contact.
The most common symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache muscle aches, back pain, low energy, and swollen lymph nodes.
This is accompanied or followed by the development of a rash that can last for two to three weeks. The rash can be found on the face, palms of the hands, soles of the feet, eyes, mouth, throat, groin, and genital and/or anal regions.
According to the WHO, people remain infectious until all of the lesions have crusted over, the scabs have fallen off, and a new layer of skin has formed underneath. — Gaea Katreena Cabico
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