MANILA – An infectious disease expert on Monday stated that the rare monkeypox virus could possibly enter the country via travelers carrying the infection.
Vaccine Experts Panel member Dr. Rontgene Solante said in a televised public briefing that monkeypox, endemic in parts of Central and West Africa, has been detected in countries with “high-tech healthcare facilities”.
“With travel, you know now the possibility of one infection, a person carrying the infection can also travel a lot and can also enter a country that’s where the vulnerability of most population, when one has the infection incubating and then arriving in the Philippines and develop the symptoms upon arrival or after the arrival,” he said.
The World Health Organization said the disease has recently emerged in 12 countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.
According to the WHO, it is caused by the monkeypox virus which is transmitted with lesions, body fluids, and respiratory droplets.
“For the monkeypox, the most common human to human route of transmission or mode of transmission is only respiratory droplets so meaning within three feet talking to each other without any face mask that’s the mode of transmission,” Solante said.
Solante noted that in terms of transmissibility, Covid-19 is more transmissible over monkeypox as it can be spread in several ways.
“Aside from the droplets, you also have airborne because of a very small particle, it can remain in the air and you’ll be exposed, that’s another way and there’s also contact transmission,” he said.
However, similar basic public health protocols observed during the Covid-19 pandemic may have prevented it.
Its symptoms include fever, intense headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy, swollen lymph nodes and a skin rash or lesions.
The WHO stated that vaccination against smallpox may help stop the monkeypox virus transmission.
The government is continuously monitoring the overseas monkeypox outbreak, but closing the country’s borders is still unlikely.
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