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| A worker disinfects chairs at the airport in Manila on Aug. 4, 2020. (Photo by Ted Aljibe/ AFP) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] MANILA: The Department of Health said it has already prepared a response mechanism for the monkeypox virus in line with global standards after the World Health Organization (WHO) sounded its highest alarm on the global virus outbreak. The agency claims it has been preparing for the virus ever since it saw the rise in monkeypox cases in other countries last May. The Philippines has yet to report even a suspected monkeypox case in the country, PhilStar reported.
“The clinical presentation is often explained by other diseases that look like monkeypox, but it is not the same,” DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a statement on Sunday. “The DOH will keep the Filipino public updated with factual information.” Monkeypox, which was first discovered in a monkey, is far less severe than the related deadly smallpox virus. The strain circulating outside Africa is said to be the milder of the two known versions. The UN-backed WHO on Saturday declared the monkeypox outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern.”
The risk of the virus remains moderate globally except in the European region where the risk is high. A July 22 tally of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention logged 16,836 individuals infected with the monkeypox virus across 74 countries. The DOH said it has also been “carefully communicating” information about the monkeypox virus to the public through guidelines and advisories.
