The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday recorded two more cases of monkeypox in the Philippines, raising the total number of confirmed cases to three.
DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire, during a press briefing, said the two new cases are aged 34 and 29 years and both had recent travel history to countries with confirmed monkeypox cases.
“The persons who have contracted monkeypox, including the first detected case, do not show any severe symptoms of the disease so there is no reason for panic. All we need to do is be more cautious,” Vergeire told reporters.
The Health OIC declined to give the details about the patients, including their gender.
According to Vergeire, the 34-year-old patient’s positive PCR result was released on August 18, while the 29-year-old patient’s result was released on August 19.
The 34-year-old patient is under home isolation while contact tracing is ongoing, according to Vergeire. On the other hand, the 29-year-old patient case is currently in a healthcare facility.
At least 17 close contacts are being verified as contact tracing is ongoing.
“We are verifying the current health and quarantine status of these close contacts. To comply with the laws on notifiable diseases and data privacy, we cannot release any other details beyond what has already been mentioned at this time,” she said.
The first case of monkeypox in the country was a 31-year-old patient who had traveled to a country with a known monkeypox case.
The DOH earlier said monkeypox is a virus transmitted to humans through close contact with an infected person or animal or contaminated materials.
A viral infection resembling smallpox and first detected in humans in 1970, monkeypox is less dangerous and contagious than smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980.
The first symptoms can include a fever, headaches, sharp muscle pains, fatigue, a rash, as well as swollen and painful lymph nodes, according to an Agence France-Presse explainer.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on July 23 declared the monkeypox outbreak, which has affected nearly 16,000 people in 72 countries, according to a tally by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to be a global health emergency, the highest alarm it can sound.
Some 95 of cases have been transmitted through sexual activity, according to a study of 528 people in 16 countries published in the New England Journal of Medicine. With Gabriellea Parino