The San Juan City local government on Tuesday, September 17, held a town hall session focusing on the monkeypox or mpox virus and how to detect and control its spread to San Juaneños.
MMC President and San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora leads a town hall meeting on monkeypox for elected city and barangay officials, healthcare workers, and barangay health workers. (Mark Balmores)
The forum was led by San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora and other officials from the city government and the Department of Health (DOH).
Healthcare workers from UERM Medical Center, Cardinal Santos Medical Center and other private health care practitioners were also invited to join the town hall meeting.
"The town hall meeting aims to educate the health workers and barangay healthcare workers with the right information and debunk misinformation on the disease. It is important that we arm our healthcare and barangay health workers with facts that will help us in preventing this disease from spreading, create more awareness, as well as know the latest updates on this. This is also our chance to clarify misinformation and debunk myths surrounding the disease to reduce fear and ensure that we are only circulating the correct information,” Zamora said.
“This townhall, the very first face to face townhall meeting among the 17 LGUs in Metro Manila is here now happening, isa pong malaking paghahanda ito kasi sa paghahandang ito ay malalaman natin ano ba ang mga dapat nating gawin, mga aksyon na dapat gawin at sino ang dapat tawagan at kausapin kapag merong positive (This town hall, the very first face-to-face town hall meeting among the 17 LGUs in Metro Manila, is a big step in preparing ourselves against this disease. Here, we will learn what is the proper procedure in handling these cases and who are the individuals that must be contacted first if ever there is a positive case)," DOH Regional Director Dr. Rio Magpantay said.
During the recent Metro Manila Council (MMC) meeting, Zamora, who is also the council's president, called for a more proactive and widespread information dissemination campaign against mpox.
“Kung puwede, madalaw ng DOH ang aming mga LGU. Patawag tayong mga mayor ng townhall meetings kung saan nandoon ang ating mga barangay officials, kagawad, barangay health workers at ating city health officers para lang po malaman ng ating mga mamamayan (If possible, the DOH could visit our LGUs. We mayors could also conduct townhall meetings spearheaded by our barangay officials, kagawads, barangay health workers, and city health officers to educate our citizens on mpox)," he said.
Meanwhile, Health Undersecretary Gloria Balboa allayed fears of the disease being as alarming as Covid-19 since the virus causing it is not airborne.
“This is not alarming unlike po yung Covid-19, kasi hindi naman airborne, hindi naman nandiyan lang sa hangin. This one is skin-to-skin, close intimate contact ang kanyang mode of transmission (This is not alarming unlike Covid-19 since this is not airborne. This disease spreads through skin-to-skin contact and intimate contact)," she explained during the meeting.
She reminded the public to strictly maintain good hygiene and sanitation to avoid the disease.
"Iyong ating universal precautionary measures, yung disinfection ng mga contaminated surfaces, hand washing with sanitizers or even just the plain soap and water. Iyong ating proper way of washing our hands can kill po the virus (Let's all follow our universal precautionary measures which include the disinfection of contaminated surfaces and hand washing with sanitizers or even just plain soap and water. We must also practice the proper way of washing our hands as this can kill the virus)," she added.