41 placed under quarantine in QC

PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the Department of Health (DoH) to closely monitor cases of mpox on Wednesday, as the Quezon City government put 41 close contacts of the first mpox patient under quarantine after he was found to have visited at least two establishments in the city.

In a press conference, Mayor Joy Belmonte said the 33-year-old Filipino patient, not a resident of the city, had gone to a dermatology clinic and the AED Infinity Wellness Spa along E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City.

Citing initial information, Belmonte said the patient admitted that he had frequented similar spas in other cities.

The doctor noticed skin lesions on the arms, face, trunk, back and other parts of the patient's body and immediately coordinated with the barangay to transport him to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine to collect specimens.

At the Palace, the President told Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa to continue surveillance, especially of areas and people most vulnerable to the disease.

Herbosa said the first mpox case reported by the Philippines this year was a mild variant, not the deadly strain sparking global alarm.

The highly transmissible Clade 1b strain of the virus has killed hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has also been detected in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Sweden.

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«It's the old variant,» Herbosa said of the virus that struck a 33-year-old Filipino male, referring to the mild Clade 2 variant.

«It's not as alarming as the Clade 1b,» he said.

He said the patient had not traveled outside the country and was «still confined» in the hospital.

«For us doctors, that means the virus is circulating in the community,» Herbosa said.

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Nine mpox cases were reported by Philippine authorities in 2022 and 2023, with the previous most recent one last December.

Unlike Covid-19, which is airborne, mpox may only be transmitted through intimate or skin-to-skin physical contact with someone infected or with contaminated materials.

Herbosa assured the President that the health department is ready to treat and manage mpox.

International health experts said most mpox cases are mild, but it can be deadly as it