Palace: Marcos seeks to raise awareness about monkeypox

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. wants to increase public awareness about monkeypox and the measures being taken by the government to prevent its spread, Malacañang said on Friday.

Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles made the statement after she was asked at a news conference about Marcos' reaction to the first case of monkeypox detected in the Philippines.

"First of all, it’s only one case, number one. Number two, as you can see, it doesn’t affect the entire population. Number three, this is not like COVID that can be spread by air very easily and could possibly be fatal. This is not particularly fatal, but it is of concern," Cruz-Angeles said.

"His primary concern was to get the information out so that people will be aware, but also to be aware that the systems of the DOH (Department of Health) are in place and that this is not the same as COVID," she added.

During his inauguration on June 30, Marcos vowed that there would be “no more secrets” when it comes to public health.

The DOH reassured the public that its mechanisms are in place to identify cases of monkeypox while also advising them to take the necessary precautions to avoid contracting the virus.

"Our systems are in place, but we all need to work together. We also need the public to be vigilant, particularly the key population groups who are at most risk. And based on what we know about monkeypox...there is a very clear need to be more careful about who we interact with, particularly sexual intimate contact," Health Undersecretary Dr. Beverly Ho said at the Palace briefing.

"I think what is clear to us is that we’re working closely with those population groups so that they will have a better prepared risk perception that this is a disease that would probably concern them more than the general population," she added.

The Philippines has detected its first case of monkeypox in a 31-year-old Filipino.

Ho said the patient arrived from abroad on July 19. She said the patient had prior travel to countries with monkeypox cases, and was only tested for monkeypox on Thursday, July 28.

The first symptoms of monkeypox are fever, headaches, muscle pain, and back pain during the course of five days.

Rashes subsequently appear on the face, the palms of hands and soles of feet, followed by lesions, spots and finally scabs. —VBL, GMA News