Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Tre帽as 鈥擩erry Tre帽as/Facebook
ILOILO CITY, Philippines 鈥� With four confirmed mpox (monkeypox) cases and two more suspected infections under surveillance, the city government here will request the Department of Health (DOH) to allow local testing while expressing readiness to purchase vaccines should national guidelines permit.
Mayor Jerry Tre帽as said he was set to sign a formal request to the DOH seeking permission for the city-run Uswag Molecular Laboratory to test mpox specimens.
He said the facility鈥檚 medical technologists were trained two years ago specifically for mpox diagnostics and that the laboratory is fully equipped, except for the absence of testing kits that must come from the national government.
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鈥淐onsidering that we are trained, we have the necessary personnel. As long as they give us kits, we can test for the whole of Panay if necessary. I hope DOH will listen to us,鈥� Tre帽as said in a June 3 interview.
At present, confirmatory testing for mpox cases is done at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Metro Manila.
Tre帽as said the turnaround time at the RITM could cause delays, increasing the risk of transmission as suspected cases were not isolated quickly.
In contrast, local testing could provide results in two to three days.
鈥淵ou know, if it takes time, then people who are suspected will continue to go around, continue to have physical contact with other people, and continue to transmit the mpox,鈥� he warned.
On June 2, the Iloilo City Health Office (CHO) confirmed four mpox cases while two more were pending confirmatory results.
Managing cases
Tre帽as immediately convened the Task Force Mpox, which includes the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and CHO, for a coordinated response, including its mpox awareness and containment campaign starting on June 2.
This was followed on June 3 by stakeholder meetings involving barangay officials, business groups, transport operators, national agencies and uniformed personnel such as the police and coast guard.
Future briefings will include educational institutions, business process outsourcing, social hygiene clinics, and representatives from the sex worker community鈥攐ne of the high-risk groups identified.
The CHO has also launched targeted outreach, especially in barangays with suspected or confirmed cases.
According to Dr. Mary Ann Poli-Diaz, CHO head, sex workers will be gathered and briefed on strict preventive protocols as mpox is transmissible through close skin-to-skin and sexual contact.
The symptoms of mpox, a viral illness primarily spread through close physical contact, include fever, swollen lymph nodes, muscle aches and a distinctive rash.
To complement the education campaign, the city government has implemented precautionary measures such as limiting the number of people in elevators at City Hall to a maximum of ten to reinforce social distancing.
The city is ready to procure mpox vaccines if the DOH authorizes local governments to do so, said Tre帽as.
At present, local governments are prohibited from purchasing the vaccine unless allowed by the national health agency.
Vaccines for mpox are available internationally and are being used in countries experiencing active outbreaks, but no national rollout or DOH-approved supply chain has been established in the Philippines yet. /cb