The Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. has cautioned against home isolation for suspected monkeypox cases after the Department of Health confirmed the country’s first case, with at least 10 close contacts.
“Monkeypox cases should be isolated in one area and not be under home isolation,” PHAPI president Dr. Jose Rene de Grano said.
“If that is really monkeypox, if possible, don’t go for home isolation as this may lead to a rise in cases,” he added.
On Friday, Health Undersecretary Beverly Ho said the patient, who had prior travel to countries with monkeypox cases, arrived in the country on July 19 and was only tested for monkeypox on Thursday, July 28.
The patient has been discharged hospital… but is undergoing strict isolation and monitoring at home, Ho said, adding that the DOH has recorded 10 close contacts who were in the same household and have not manifested any symptoms yet.
De Grano said private hospitals are ready should there be additional monkeypox cases that will be detected.
“The Department of Health said the preparations needed are the same as those for COVID-19. So the protocol is almost the same. We will isolate suspected cases showing these symptoms,” he said.
However, since there is no available treatment yet for monkeypox in the country, patients who test positive will be treated according to their symptoms, De Grano said.
“The treatment will be supportive, based on what the patient needs. If the patient needs to be given dextrose, he or she will be given one. If the patient has fever, he or she will be given medicine for fever. If he or she has body pains, then he or she will be given medicine for that,” he said.
As this developed, Spain and Brazil reported their first monkeypox-related deaths on Friday, marking what are thought to be the first fatalities linked to the current outbreak outside of Africa.
Spain is one of the world’s worst-hit countries, with 4,298 people there infected with the virus, according to the health ministry’s emergency and alert coordination center.
“Of the 3,750 (monkeypox) patients with available information, 120 cases were hospitalized (3.2 percent) and one case has died,” the center said in a report.
In Brazil a 41-year-old man died of monkeypox, local authorities said.
The man, who local media said had serious immune system problems, died on Thursday in Belo Horizonte, the capital of the southeastern Minas Gerais state.
Brazil’s health ministry has recorded close to 1,000 monkeypox cases, mostly in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states, which are also in the country’s southeast.
Early signs of the disease include a high fever, swollen lymph glands, and a chickenpox-like rash.
The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier declared the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency.
According to the WHO, more than 18,000 cases have been detected throughout the world outside of Africa since the beginning of May.
The disease has been detected in 78 countries, with 70 percent of cases found in Europe and 25 percent in the Americas, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
As cases surge globally, the WHO on Wednesday called on the group currently most affected by the virus—men who have sex with men—to limit their sexual partners.
Ghebreyesus told reporters that the best way to protect against infection was “to reduce the risk of exposure.”
“For men who have sex with men, this includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners, reconsidering sex with new partners, and exchanging contact details with any new partners to enable follow-up if needed,” he said.
The disease usually heals by itself after two to three weeks, sometimes taking a month.
A smallpox vaccine from Danish drug maker Bavarian Nordic, marketed under the name Jynneos in the United States and Imvanex in Europe, has also been found to protect against monkeypox.