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It was not clear if the patient had contracted the new, potentially more deadly strain of the disease, which first appeared outside of Africa in Sweden last week.
Aug. 19, 2024Updated 3:19 p.m. ET
The Philippines reported its first case this year of mpox, previously known as monkeypox, on Monday, just days after the World Health Organization declared the disease a global health emergency.
The Philippines Department of Health, in a statement announcing the case, did not say whether the patient was infected with Clade Ib, the newer and potentially more deadly version of the mpox virus that is dominant now in the Democratic Republic of Congo, driving a rise in cases there.
It was an older strain, Clade IIb, that caused a worldwide outbreak of mpox in 2022.
Last Thursday — a day after the W.H.O. declaration of a global emergency — officials in Sweden revealed that a patient there was the first person outside of Africa to be diagnosed with the new strain, setting off fears of a much wider spread. Also on Thursday, Pakistan announced a case of mpox but said it was not yet clear which strain of the disease was involved.
Here is what we know.
The case in the Philippines
The patient is a 33-year-old Filipino man with no travel history outside of the country, whose mpox infection was confirmed and reported on Sunday to the Department of Health, the department said.
The man became sick more than a week ago, first with a fever, “followed four days later by findings of a distinct rash on the face, back, nape, trunk, groin, as well as palms and soles,” the department said. The patient was seen in a government hospital, where samples of his skin lesions were taken to test for genetic evidence of the virus.
The Philippines’ secretary of health, Dr. Teodoro J. Herbosa, discouraged public panic by emphasizing that officials were working to make testing convenient. “Our health system is working,” he said in a statement, “we can handle the situation and will keep the public well-informed.”
