The Department of Health (DOH) said it is still in the process of investigating if there is already a local transmission of monkeypox in the country.
“For now, we cannot still confirm that local transmission is present,” the DOH said in a statement on Thursday, Aug. 25.
Last Aug. 22, the DOH reported the Philippines’ fourth monkeypox case in the person of a 25-year-old Filipino national with no documented travel history to or from any country with documented confirmed cases of Monkeypox.
“The Department is still conducting and confirming contact tracing of the fourth case. The Department would also like to reiterate that the verification of their information is crucial as through this, we can clarify and confirm the source of infection,” the state health agency said.
“Rest assured that we will be updating once we have all the factual information about the case. Regardless if local transmission is or is not present, the country's preventive measures for monkeypox will act as if such is happening,” it added.
Meanwhile, the DOH said it is not recommending imposing a lockdown due to monkeypox. It was reported recently that the fourth monkeypox case was from Iloilo.
“The DOH does not recommend lockdown due to the confirmation of a fourth case of monkeypox residing in Iloilo,” it said.
“The confirmed case and the identified close contacts are under monitoring and strict quarantine. These measures are being done to help prevent further transmission,” it added.
Fourteen close contacts of the fourth case have been identified so far by the DOH.
On July 29, the DOH confirmed the country’s first monkeypox case. This patient had already been discharged from isolation and was already tagged as recovered. Both the second and third cases are still undergoing isolation but are in stable condition, the DOH reported recently.
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