(from left to right) Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Ted Herbosa and DOH Assistant Secretary Albert Domingo hold a media forum on Monday, September 9, to address concerns regarding the cases of Mpox in the country. (Screengrab via DOH)
QUEZON CITY, (PIA) – Health Secretary Ted Herbosa reassured the public anew that there is no cause for the public to be greatly alarmed by the cases of Monkeypox (Mpox) in the country because its transmission can be easily controlled.
Herbosa also emphasized that the addition in cases is brought by the increase in the testing activities of the Department of Health (DOH) to actively detect the Mpox cases using the currently available 1,600 testing kits.
“Our primary goal remains to control transmission, maintaining zero mortality from Mpox,” said Herbosa during a media forum on Monday, September 9.
“We are vigilant in monitoring the situation and ensuring that the appropriate measures are in place to protect our communities,” the Health Secretary added.
At a policy level, the DOH is currently developing the “National Action Plan alongside Guidelines of Mpox Prevention, Detection, and Management with Integration of Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially-Incapacitated Patients Program for Testing” to improve the response of the country’s health system to Mpox and other related infectious diseases.
This initiative anchors the development of relevant guidelines for schools, workplaces, and tourism hubs with regard to the effective prevention of Mpox outbreak.
In the next 3 months, the DOH initially earmarked P158 million budget allocation from the public health fund to procure more test kits and heighten the information dissemination campaign on how the public can protect themselves from the risk of Mpox.
The DOH is also targeting to capacitate government hospitals with molecular laboratories to develop Mpox test kits for wider access of populations across the country.
To date, the 14 recorded cases of Mpox in the National Capital Region (NCR), CALABARZON, and the Cagayan Valley are classified under the Clade II or the milder strain of Mpox.
Mpox is “self-limiting” or can easily be treated without the need for hospitalization. On a similar note, the transmission of Mpox can easily be controlled by preventing close and intimate skin contact with a person who has an active lesion.
In line with this, Herbosa reiterated that there is no need to activate an Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases to control the transmission of Mpox.
The implementation of border control and mandatory mask mandate are also discouraged by the Health Secretary knowing that the transmission of Mpox is low risk.
It can be recalled that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Mpox as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in July 2022 in light of the surge in cases that originated in countries where the transmission of the virus was not seen before.
For this reason, the DOH clarified that this declaration was primarily made to urge health ministries across the world to prepare for Mpox and prevent its outbreak. (JMP/PIA-NCR)
