10 South Cotabato residents afflicted with monkeypox

COTABATO CITY — Ten residents from five towns and Koronadal City in South Cotabato have tested positive for monkeypox, officials announced on Thursday, May 22.

Local executives and the physician Conrado Braña Jr., chief of the Integrated Provincial Health Office-South Cotabato, separately confirmed to reporters on Thursday morning that all ten patients are in isolation facilities and under close watch by medical teams.

Braña and municipal officials reported that there is one monkeypox patient in Banga, one in Tantangan, one in Lake Sebu, two in Surallah and four in T’boli. 

All five towns are close to the provincial capital, Koronadal City, where a villager had also tested positive for monkeypox.

“We have ten patients now. Everything is being done to prevent the spread of the disease to other areas in the province,” Braña said.

Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., chairperson of the multi-sector South Cotabato Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the Department of Health 12 is helping them address the problem.

Tamayo said personnel of their Provincial Health Office are cooperating with Braña and his subordinates in preventing the spread of the monkeypox disease to other areas in South Cotabato.