MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health debunks all rumors about an outbreak of Mpox, previously called monkeypox in the Philippines. The tenth recorded case in the country is the mild clade and not the deadly strain that caused alarm in other parts of the globe.
The country’s most recent case was a 33-year-old Filipino male with no travel history.
Herbosa said nine cases of Mpox have been from August 2022 until December 2023, all with travel history to infected countries.
Since December 2023, no Mpox case has been identified for a number of reasons.
All nine recorded cases were mild and patients were able to recover quickly with no deaths because the strain that hit the country was the original variety called Clade II.
However an outbreak of Mpox hit the Democratic Republic of Congo with over 1800 cases spreading very quickly with deaths including children prompting the World Health Organization to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
All Health Departments all over the world were alerted of a new clade called the Clade 1B, a highly transmissible strain that caused deaths in Congo, with recorded cases in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Sweden.
“We are lucky because this Mpox we found was the original variety, the Clade II,” Herbosa said on ANC’s “Headstart.”
Herbosa said the clade could have entered the Philippines and infected patients but because the strain only manifests mild symptoms, people don’t consult with doctors and undergo tests anymore because they recover fast.
While Mpox is deadly, the Philippines has not recorded any case of death, yet. Death cases are prevalent in Africa, according to Herbosa because of the high incidence of HIV infection in the region.
Herbosa clarified that the clade found in the Philippines is different from the deadly strain detected in Congo.
“Not the new one, because it’s Clade II so it’s the previous August 2022 declared [strain] which is mild,” Herbosa said.
Mortality rate however of the strain found in Congo is yet to be determined, Herbosa said.
