EDITORIAL - Containing monkeypox

It’s not as contagious as COVID-19, but it’s more infectious than human immunodeficiency virus. And in parts of Africa where the disease is endemic and quality health care is inadequate, monkeypox kills as many as 10 percent of the infected people, according to the World Health Organization. Most of the afflicted recover within weeks, but the infection is reportedly characterized by extreme pain.

The Philippines has better health care facilities than less developed countries in Africa. And there is enough information about monkeypox alongside warnings from the WHO, which recently declared the disease as a public health emergency of international concern. Now that the first case of monkeypox has been detected in the Philippines, people should be pro-active in preventing its spread.

First discovered in monkeys in 1958, the first human monkeypox infection was recorded in 1970. Rodents and squirrels can spread the virus. Humans can catch it by being bitten or touching the blood, body fluids or contaminated fur of an infected animal.

Human to human transmission, however, has increased over the years. This happens through physical contact with the skin lesions and scabs that form on the afflicted, or through hours of close and repeated exposure to cough and sneeze droplets from the infected. The virus can also linger in clothing, towels and bedding used by a patient, consequently infecting those who touch the items.

Since the outbreak began last May, the WHO has recorded over 19,000 monkeypox cases in 75 countries and territories, with five deaths in Africa. Up to 70 percent of the cases were reported in America and 15 percent in Europe. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that 98 percent of the cases detected since the outbreak may have been among men having sex with men, and advised those at risk to consider reducing the number of sexual partners “for the moment.”

All precautions must be taken especially because vaccines meant for smallpox, which have been authorized for use against monkeypox, are currently in extremely limited supply. Testing capabilities are also limited, with only the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and the Philippine Genome Center able to confirm a monkeypox infection.

The Philippines has had two years of experience in dealing with the far more infectious and deadly COVID-19. As long as health safety practices advised by experts are heeded, monkeypox should not turn into another serious public health problem.