LAST August 16th, a Quezon City (QC) resident started showing symptoms of monkeypox (mpox). After he was admitted six days later, and his specimen was brought to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), it was discovered on August 26 that he was positive for the virus.
The Quezon City government reports that the 37-year-old resident has since been admitted to the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila and that he was discovered to have a recent local travel history.
As stated by Mayor Joy Belmonte in an interview, they are currently monitoring the condition of the resident, and are also monitoring the 15 people he’d come into contact with before his diagnosis.
This marks the first recorded case of monkeypox in the city. This follows after the government announced the first case of mpox which happened in Metro Manila, traced back to a person who’d gone to the Infinity Spa, Fahrenheit Café, and Fitness Center, as per the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
To curb the spread of the disease, the Quezon City government will be setting into place its prevention, control, and response protocols, with healthcare workers undergoing orientations to know how to deal with these mpox cases.
The PNA also reports that Belmonte has since asked owners to cooperate and comply with the efforts of the government in contact tracing to further prevent the spread of the virus. They have also created the QC Task Force MPOX to better monitor the disease.
Dr. Marlon Arcegono, the vice chair of the Hospital Infection Prevention and Control Unit of the local government-run OMMC, has also noted that they have requested vaccines for the disease from the Department of Health (DOH).
They have since advised the public to constantly practice good hygiene by taking a bath when they get home after coming from outside. To avoid skin-to-skin contact with people who may have mpox, it’s also recommended to wear long sleeves, jackets, or anything else that covers your arms.
This follows after news came out that there are now eight active mpox cases in the country; in the three new cases reported, two come from Metro Manila, and one in CALABARZON.
