The Philippines has reported a new case of the mpox virus, the first in the country since December.
Health officials said on Monday that the patient, a 33-year-old Filipino male from capital Manila, has no history of foreign travel.
The latest case was detected by heightened government surveillance following the outbreak in Africa reported by the World Health Organization (WHO).
“The mpox virus is among us. This is a warning to everybody,” Health Secretary Teddy Herbosa told reporters, noting that nine cases of the virus were also detected in 2023.
The case was reported to the health agency on Sunday.
“He did not travel [abroad]. That means the virus is already here in the Philippines,” Herbosa said, adding no border control measures will be implemented similar to those during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials are still awaiting the sequencing of the results of the test to determine what type of strain has been detected in the country.
The new form of the virus has triggered global concern as it seems to spread easily through routine close contact.
On Wednesday, the WHO declared mpox a global public health emergency, its highest form of alert, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that had spread to neighbouring countries.
On Thursday, Sweden reported its first case of mpox clade I, a viral infection that spreads through close contact and is a more dangerous variant of the known mpox. It is the first case of the variant outside of Africa; more cases are expected in the region in the coming days.
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