By Ma. Teresa Montemayor | Philippine News Agency
The mpox case detected in the country is a mild variant of the virus, not similar to the variant causing fatalities in Africa.
In a statement Wednesday night, Health Sec. Teodoro Herbosa said that the sequencing of the monkeypox virus (MPXV) deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sample from the 10th mpox case showed it is MPXV Clade II.
“We found the milder MPXV clade II in the 10th mpox case in the Philippines. Let us continue to be alert but not alarmed,” he said.
Mpox is caused by the MPXV species of the orthopoxvirus genus, first discovered among laboratory primates in Denmark in 1958 and later observed in humans in 1970.
There are two major groups of MPXV, called “clades”.
MPXV clade I has been observed mainly in the Congo basin (Central Africa) and has been described in the 1980s as having a mortality rate ranging from 1 percent to 10 percent.
Clade I is more likely to cause severe illness and death, especially in the immunocompromised. It has two subclades: Ia and Ib. Clade Ia is endemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with a case fatality rate of 3.6 percent.
Meanwhile, clade Ib is a new strain of MPXV responsible for the current outbreak in the DRC and nearby countries.
Earlier, the World Health Organization said “there is, as yet, insufficient information available to fully characterize mpox severity due to clade Ib as data are emerging and, so far, few deaths were recorded, precluding age-stratified analyses.”
MPXV clade II has been observed mainly in West Africa. It is milder than clade I, with a mortality rate reported from less than 1 percent to 4 percent. Clade II caused the 2022 mpox global outbreak.
Recent cases of mpox detected in the country are by MPXV clade II, with zero deaths.
Herbosa urged the public to prevent the spread of mpox by avoiding close and intimate physical contact.
“Clean your hands often with soap and water or alcohol-based sanitizers. Avoid skin-to-skin contact,” he said.