A nurse holds a monkeypox vaccination at the Northwell Health Immediate Care Center at Fire Island-Cherry Grove, in New York, U.S., July 15, 2022. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines may receive supplies of monkeypox vaccines by 2023, Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said Wednesday.
This, according to Vergeire, is in coordination with the private sector who has expressed intention to help the DOH procure vaccines for the said rare disease.
“What we are doing right now in the country is really coordinating with our private sector counterparts, and meron namang nag-signify that they will be helping us (Some have already signified that they will be helping us),” she said over ABS-CBN News’ Headstart.
Vergeire further noted: “Unfortunately, doon po sa mga pag-uusap, ang pinaka maagang delivery kung sakaling makabili tayo would still be 2023, so we are still trying to explore that avenue where we can just request kahit minimal amount muna para mabigyan lang natin kahit healthcare workers muna.”
(Unfortunately, based on our meetings, if we get to purchase monkeypox vaccines, its earliest time of delivery would still be in 2023, so we’re also exploring other ways to acquire even a minimal amount to at least give to our healthcare workers.)
According to Vergeire, the DOH is also communicating with other member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to possibly procure monkeypox vaccines as a whole.
“With the Asean, it is still in this stage of exploratory meetings that the whole Asean membership – these ten countries – will be procuring [vaccines] as one, so we can have stocks for all of these countries, but at the initial stage pa lang po iyon (That’s still in its initial stages),” she added.
Last July 29, the DOH confirmed that the first case of monkeypox in the Philippines has been detected.
It later reported that the infected patient has since recovered from the sickness, and has been discharged from isolation.
The World Health Organization earlier called for a collaborative international response against the rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak, which it referred to as a “public health emergency of international concern.”
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