EDITORIAL - Mpox high alert

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared mpox a global public health emergency. The WHO issued the highest alert level for the viral disease once known as monkeypox after 14,000 cases and 524 deaths were recorded in Africa so far this year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Africa declared mpox a public health emergency a day before the WHO issued its alert.

It’s the second time that the WHO has issued the highest alert for mpox. The difference is that the first time, in 2022, the Philippines and the rest of the world were still reeling from COVID-19 and stringent health protocols remained in place in many areas.

Those health protocols can still help prevent mpox infection. This is important particularly because unlike COVID, there is still no vaccine for mpox, which can be transmitted by both humans and animals. Health officials have warned that the mpox virus, which is transmitted through contact with infected body fluids and open wounds, can also be transmitted through the respiratory system during prolonged face-to-face contact, and even by touching contaminated objects such as clothing and bedsheets. So the basic anti-COVID protocols of wearing face masks and hand disinfection can help.

Most people, however, have abandoned these basic protocols with the lifting of COVID health restrictions. Perhaps health officials can disseminate information on what happens when a person contracts mpox, including images of the painful and unsightly rashes, blisters and bumps that are often pus-filled, similar to the manifestations of smallpox. The bumps continue to be painful even as they crust over, and lymph nodes can swell and be painful during infection, which can last for two to four weeks. Symptoms can take three to 21 days to develop, but an infected person can already transmit the virus before the symptoms appear.

When mpox was declared a global health emergency for the first time in July 2022, the principal mode of transmission in over 70 countries where the virus was detected was through sexual contract. The alert was lifted in May 2023. This time, however, other modes of transmission have been reported and attributed to a new variant of the virus, with cases in Africa spiking by 160 percent and deaths by 19 percent.

Philippine health officials have reassured the public that the country has not recorded any case of mpox since December last year. In a globalized environment, however, the virus can enter the country any time. Filipinos know the minimum health protocols to protect themselves and their loved ones.