FILE PHOTO: Test tubes labelled “Monkeypox virus positive” are seen in this illustration taken May 22, 2022. REUTERS
The country’s second monkeypox case has “completely healed” and was discharged on Thursday, according to the Department of Health (DOH). Maria Rosario Vergeire, officer in charge of the DOH, said on Friday that the 34-year-old individual who tested positive for the virus on Aug. 18 had been cleared by the viral disease after the patient’s lesions healed. The patient’s 18 close contacts have remained asymptomatic, she noted. However, the two remaining active cases of monkeypox are still in isolation. The third case, a 29-year-old individual, was not yet declared as recovered despite completing the 21-day isolation on Wednesday because of lesion scabs in the upper torso and left forearm, she said. The fourth case still has rashes that have not dried up. —Kathleen de Villa