DOH-7 clarifies: ‘No confirmed’ cases of mpox in Central Visayas

A close-up of a hand with mpox symptoms.

CEBU CITY, Philippines — An official from the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) confirmed on Thursday that there are “no confirmed” cases of monkeypox (mpox) recorded in Central Visayas.

Dr. Eugenia Mercedes Cañal, regional epidemiologist of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of DOH-7, debunked the posts that were circulated on social media recently, stating that there were already five confirmed cases of the virus here in Central Visayas.

In a virtual press conference on Thursday, August 29, Cañal, however, said those five cases were “suspected” cases of mpox which meant they were subject for confirmation.

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Two of the suspected five cases were females between 18 to 80 years old, the other two are males. However, Cañal said they had yet to identify the information of the last suspected case.

The result of the confirmation will be available in one to two weeks from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

“In surveillance, naa tay gitawag nga case definition nga kung mapasok na siya sa case definition nato, himoon na nato na siya nga ingong ‘suspect case.’ The confirmed case needs a laboratory confirmation sa katong iyahang rash atoang kuhaan og sample, [any] rash nga nitubo parte sa iyang lawas,” Cañal said.

(In surveillance, we have what we call case definition that if this can enter in our case definition, we will make it a suspect case. The confirmed case needs a laboratory confirmation on her rash, which we will take, [any] rash that grew on the part of the body.)

As for the five suspected cases, Cañal said the local government units where the patients were located were already informed about it, and they had been making efforts to control the spread of the virus if ever it would be mpox positive.

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However, when asked about the information about the LGUs, Cañal said she could not divulge it but they were located within the region.

These suspected cases also did not have any travel history outside the country.

Cañal said, mpox was a virus you could get from a direct contact, or could be sexual contact with a person but its symptoms were similar with other infections where you could get a fever.

“Anybody can acquire the virus if ang usa nato ka kauban through skin contact, through direct contact. Naa na siyay mpox. Ang babaye o lalaki, same lang siya nga matakdan, however, makaingon nga mas daghan karon sa lahi nga nasud wherein having sex with men ang mas daghan nga infection because it can also be transmitted through sexual contact,” she added.

(Anybody can acquire the virus if one of our companions (is infected) through skin contact, through direct contact. Then he has mpox. A woman or a man are the same, they can get infected. However, we can say that many were infected in another country where cases of having sex with men because it can also be transmitted through sexual contact.)

The incubation period would start from one to 21 days, and it would extend to three weeks depending on the person’s immune system.

Among the symptoms of this virus include fever, rashes that are not itchy (like in Chickenpox) but painful, and headache.

Since it is a viral infection, an antibiotic is not appropriate to treat it unless the person manifested bacterial infection.

Cañal added that when there is a suspected case of mpox in the community, it would be better to isolate them to protect other people from the infection.

She added that the people should not be scared in case they spotted a suspected case of mpox in the community because it still would needed to be confirmed.

“Ato pa man na siya kuhaan og sample. Most of our cases nga nakit-an since 2022, naa tay 12 cases diri sa Region 7. Dili man siya mpox. Negative man siya sa confirmation. So, it could be any other viral infection ra pud sama sa chickenpox,” Cañal said.

(We still would have to get a sample from him or her. Most of our cases that we saw since 2022, we have 12 cases here in Region 7. It is not mpox. It was negative in the confirmation. So, it could be any other viral infection like chickenpox.)