3 of 11 suspected mpox

Cases in Bohol ‘cleared’

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA)—It’s less worry for Bohol as three of the 11 suspected cases of monkeypox (MPOX) recorded here, are discarded; eight more cases are still at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) for confirmation.

Governor Celestino Gallares Memorial Medical Center (GCGMMC) infectious disease specialist Dr. Edward Matthew Ylaya shared this at the weekly Kapihan sa PIA, aired live from the PIA Bohol studio, Thursday.

Dr. Ylaya, who had an extensive experience tropical diseases including mpox as a fellow at the RITM when the viral disease reappeared in the Philippines in 2022, said mpox was discovered around 1970s, virus and has now two ancestries that evolved.

“Currently mpox virus in the Philippine is the Clade 2B virus, and in comparison to Clade 1, is less contagious, less transmissible and has lesser morality rate,” Dr. Ilaya immediately went on.

At this, both Ilaya and GCGMCC nurse Rexan Jay Cahate assured that there is no cause of real panic as the rural health units and tertiary medical facilities have the capability of managing the disease.

“When at home and they experience skin lesions, they need to contact the RHU, so they can be assessed by disease surveillance coordinators who have been empowered to pin on the disease through a system of checklist and give the necessary swab tests, advise or referral, or home isolation while waiting for the results of the tests,” reminds nurse Cahate.

In cases of a high probability of the disease, the coordinators can perform the necessary swabs for sample gathering, and advise the patient to go on a home isolation while the tests can be confirmed.

Since mpox is viral, it doesn’t respond to medication.

“It has to be supportive management, and in fact most patients who develop symptoms of mpox would simply recover within 21 days”, Dr Ilaya said.

“The very obvious manifestation is the presence of skin lesions. Patients with mpox usually present fever, and after a day or two, there is the presence of flat rashes, and then form watery lesions which becomes filled with pus and then breaks into open wounds,” Ilaya explained.

“Today, most the suspected mpox cases noted in Bohol,” he said “most are those immuno-compromised,” driving the point that these people would have possible severe cases, and hospitals can be freed for treatment. (PIABohol)

MOST WHO HAVE SYMPTOMS RECOVER. Infectious diseases specialist at the GCGMMC Dr Edward Matthew Ylaya said most patients who develop symptoms of mpox simply recover, within 21 days, so that a simple home isolation cab simply stop the spread of the disease (PIABohol/PIMO)