The Department of Health (DOH) said it is facing a challenge in identifying the source of infection of the fourth monkeypox case.

DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the 25-year-old patient is “quite hesitant” to provide additional information that may help the DOH to determine how this patient got the monkeypox virus.

“Ang isa sa nagiging challenge ngayon (One of the challenges now) for us to establish the accurate history from the patient would be: the patient is now quite hesitant to give us information because of all of the media reports that has happened in the past days,” said Vergeire during a press briefing on Friday, Aug. 26.

“Na post yung kanyang picture sa social media, so medyo hesitant siya makipag-usap ngayon. Kaya kami ay patuloy na nakikipag coordinate sa kanyang mga kapamilya para makausap natin siya uli ma establish natin talaga yung source of infection ( picture was posted on social media, so is quite hesitant to talk now. So we continue to coordinate with the family members so that we can talk to the patient again we can really establish the source of infection),” she added.

Vergeire clarified that the patient has already provided the necessary information for contact tracing. Recently, the DOH reported that 14 close contacts were identified.

“Just to clarify, the patient is hesitant to provide additional information,” said Vergeire, adding that the fourth case has “already provided” the DOH “a complete history” of his or her “whereabouts.”

“Ngayon, gusto lang natin magkaroon pa ng second na interview (Now, we just want to have a second interview) for us to further get...additional information that may lead us to the specific source of infection,” said the DOH official.

“ is not refusing pero siyempre gusto din natin respetuhin muna yung kanyang hiling na hindi masyadong makipag usap muna dahil sa nangyari (but of course we also want to respect this person's request not to talk much because of what happened) these past days. But definitely, the Department of Health will enforce the law if kinakailangan para makuha natin yung tamang impormasyon (if necessary for us to get the right information) because this is for the protection of the many and of the public health,” she added.

The DOH earlier reported that the country’s fourth monkeypox case had no documented travel history to or from any country with documented confirmed cases of monkeypox.

“For now, we cannot say 100 percent and with certainty that this is a local transmission because we have not established the facts yet,” said Vergeire.

Vergeire said that they already received a report from the attending physician that the fourth case “is continuously healing” and that the lesions in the body are now starting to “dry.”

Drop in monkeypox cases globally

Meanwhile, the DOH has welcomed the recent report of the World Health Organization (WHO) that the number of monkeypox cases recorded globally dropped by 21 percent in the recent week.

“Yung 21 percent na nirereport ngayon ng WHO, ito po ay magandang balita para sa atin kasi nakikita natin bumabagal ang mga kaso internationally (The 21 percent reported by the WHO is good news for us as cases are slowing down internationally). And when cases internationally are slowing down, we hope also that it can prevent further transmission sa ibang bansa katulad ng sa atin (to other countries like ours),” said Vergeire.