DOH: Monitoring systems on alert vs mpox spread

FILE PHOTO: This undated image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shows a colorized transmission electron micrograph of monkeypox particles (red) found within an infected cell (blue), cultured in the laboratory, that was captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility in Fort Detrick, Md. (NIAID via Associated Press, File)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday said the country’s surveillance systems had been placed on alert as the World Health Organization declared mpox (formerly monkeypox) a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak in Africa that could spread outside the continent.

No border control measures are being recommended but the Bureau of Quarantine would conduct “interviews, particularly to passengers departing and arriving from countries in Africa,” according to DOH spokesperson Assistant Secretary Albert Domingo.

READ: WHO declares mpox outbreaks in Africa a global health emergency

“No new mpox cases have been detected in the Philippines since December 2023,” Domingo said.

The DOH had recorded nine confirmed cases of mpox —four in 2022 and five in 2023 —none of them fatal and with all the patients recovering later.

Highest alert level

On Thursday, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the upsurge of mpox cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and a growing number of countries in Africa constituted a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). A PHEIC status is the WHO’s highest level of alert, a situation calling for accelerated research, funding and international cooperation to contain a disease.

The declaration came on the advice of an emergency committee of independent experts who informed the WHO chief that the surge of mpox cases has the “potential to spread further across countries in Africa and possibly outside the continent.”

“The emergence of a new clade of mpox, its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the reporting of cases in several neighboring countries are very worrying. On top of outbreaks of other mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives,” Tedros said.

Earlier outbreaks

According to the WHO, there have been around 100,000 confirmed mpox cases worldwide, with 208 deaths reported.

This would be the second time the WHO raised a PHEIC relating to mpox.

In July 2022, an mpox outbreak in different parts of the world was declared a PHEIC as cases spread rapidly via sexual contact across a range of countries where the virus had not been seen before.

That PHEIC was lifted in May 2023 after a sustained decline in global cases.