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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Not true: Getting chickenpox before does not prevent monkeypox infection

Not true: Getting chickenpox before does not prevent monkeypox infection

Published Jul 25, 2022 06:30 pm

Did you get chickenpox before as a kid?

This handout photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was taken in 1997 during an investigation into an outbreak of monkeypox, which took place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and depicts the dorsal surfaces of a monkeypox case in a patient who was displaying the appearance of the characteristic rash during its recuperative stage. Brian W.J. Mahy / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention / AFP

Sorry to break it to you, but this doesn't make you immune from Monkeypox and you might have just become the latest victim of false information on social media.

In an interview on Teleradyo on Monday, July 25 Department of Health Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire stated that while monkeypox does appear like chickenpox, the two are different from each other.

In chickenpox, the distribution of the lesions or the sores that appear on the skin of an infected person appears usually around the chest or the body whereas for monkeypox, the skin lesions appear on the palms, feet, and even the private areas.

"Iba po ang bulutong dito po sa Monkeypox. (Chickenpox is different from monkeypox). You will not be immune to monkeypox if you had chickenpox before,"she said.

Vergeire shared that monkeypox has a 10 percent case fatality rate but if it will be treated early, the complications will not set in. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared that the disease is a "public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)".

In line with this, DOH said in a statement that the government is prepared for a possible monkeypox outbreak in the country. The DOH, together with its partners, “have been preparing for the monkeypox virus ever since an uptick in cases was reported in other countries in May 2022.” In an interview in May, Dr. Marissa Alejandria, Director of the Institute of Clinical Epidemiology, University of the Philippines - National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH) said that in terms of the degree of infectiousness and attack rate, Covid-19 is still much higher since the mode of transmission is respiratory, compared to monkeypox.

Monkeypox on the other hand, she said, requires close contact. It's also not the same as Covid-19 wherein you can already infect someone even without manifesting any symptoms.

"Kailangan close contact with the lesions. Hindi siya ganun kabilis ang pagkalat kumpara sa Covid (It needs close contact with the lesions. It does not spread as fast as Covid-19)," she said.

She added that Monkeypox is a reemerging disease and that experts already have data on how it's transmitted. Alejandria explained that it reemerged only because of travel, climate change and environmental changes.

Due to this, she mentioned that the difference is that experts have information and knowledge about this disease and it's not totally new unlike Covid-19

Related Tags

department of health CHICKENPOX Department of Health (DOH) doh Monkeypox
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