By Marisol Bo-oc | 03:26 PM July 29, 2022
The first case of monkeypox has been detected in the Philippines, the Department of Health (DOH) reported Friday, July 29.
“The DOH detects the first confirmed case of monkeypox in the Philippines,” Dr. Beverly Ho, chief of the Health Research Division of the Health Policy Development and Planning Bureau of the Department of Health (DOH), said in a press briefing in Malacanang.
Ho said the case is a 31-year-old Filipino national who arrived from abroad last July 19. The case had prior travel to countries with documented monkeypox cases.
Ho said the case was tested and confirmed positive for monkeypox through reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) done at the DOH Research Institute for Tropical Medicine on July 28.
The case was recovering well at home.
Ho said DOH has completed its case investigation and identification of close contacts.
Last week, DOH-Central Visayas said there was no confirmed case of monkeypox in Central Visayas yet.
The region had looked into two suspected cases of monkeypox but the patients turned out negative of the virus in laboratory tests.
“We have suspected cases of monkeypox, one in Bohol and one here in Cebu, a week ago. However, all of them are negative,” Dr. Eugenia Mercedes Cañal, cluster head of the Regional Epidemiological and Surveillance Unit (RESU-7), said in a press conference.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared monkeypox as a “public health emergency of international concern.”
Health experts said among the first symptoms of monkeypox are fever, headaches, muscle pain, and back pain.