DOH mpox
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Local legislators have penned resolutions requesting the health department and agency here regarding the information campaign on monkeypox (mpox).
The resolutions were filed by Cebu City councilors Jose Lorenzo Abellanosa and Rey Gealon to the City Council and were included in the session’s agenda on Wednesday, September 4.
Abellanosa requested the City Health Department and the Department of Health Central Visayas (DOH-7) “to conduct an intensified educational campaign” here Cebu City, regarding the influx of the dreaded mpox disease.
This request came after DOH-7 reported last week that there were already five suspected cases of mpox in the region.
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Abellanosa also requested the two offices to “apprise and update the Cebu City government, as well as the general public of what preparations they have undertaken in the event that the mpox disease will spread to the other regions including Region 7.”
Aside from that, he would also want to know the measures the public should take in addressing and lessening the impact and risk of mpox in the city.
“It is better prepared and be ready for any eventuality of the occurrence of such dreaded disease regardless of what strain it is,” Abellanosa said.
Meanwhile, Gealon, who lobbied the same request, also urged the two offices to conduct “communication campaign to educate the public about the symptoms, transmission, and prevention of mpox and to establish or enhance surveillance systems for timely monitoring and reporting of mpox cases.”
Dr. Eugenia Mercedes Cañal, regional epidemiologist of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit of DOH-7, said last August 29 that the suspected cases were still subject for confirmation as the samples were already sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).
The results are expected to be released early in September.
On Monday, Mandaue City Health Office said that they have also recorded six suspected cases of Mpox in the city.
Debra Maria Catulong, head of the MCHO, said these individuals were already advised for home isolation and are given medical and food kits.
Catulong said that the samples of the six suspected individuals were sent to the RITM for confirmation.
Given that there are already suspected cases of the disease, Cañal already stated that “it still premature to do mass vaccination.”
For now, Cañal said that their goal is to treat the rashes caused by Mpox and prevent its complications.
“I don’t think it’s priority nga maghatag ta, as of now, nga maghatag ta og vaccine. Our main concern is the rash because it’s quite painful. It could progress to other complications and it could also progress to co-infection bacterial, especially, kung ang natakdan is mga naay mga comorbidities or naa na silay daan nga [disease] or mga immuno-compromised person,” she said. | with a report from Mary Rose Sagarino