The Philippines has reported three new cases of mpox, increasing the total number of active cases in the country to eight this year, according to the Health Ministry on Sunday.
The Manila Times reports that the new cases include two in Metro Manila and one in the Calabarzon region, all involving the milder MPXV clade II variant.
Since July 2022, the Philippines has recorded a total of 17 mpox cases. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the global mpox situation a “public health emergency of international concern.”
In 2024, over a dozen African countries have reported mpox outbreaks, with the Democratic Republic of Congo accounting for over 90% of the cases. The variant circulating in Africa is believed to be more contagious and deadly than the clade II variant responsible for the 2022 global outbreak.
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, spreads through close contact and contaminated materials such as sheets, clothing, and needles. While it has been a public health issue in parts of Africa since 1970, it gained global attention in 2022, prompting the WHO to declare a global health emergency. This declaration ended 10 months later.
A new strain, clade Ib, has emerged as a significant concern following the WHO’s recent declaration of a new health emergency. This strain is a mutated version of clade I, which has been endemic in Congo for decades. Mpox typically causes flu-like symptoms, pus-filled lesions, and can be fatal.
The WHO reports that Congo has had over 18,000 suspected clade I and clade Ib mpox cases and 615 deaths this year. Additionally, there have been 222 confirmed clade Ib cases in four African countries in the last month, with cases also reported in Sweden and Thailand in individuals with recent travel history to Africa.
