CEBU CITY, Philippines – The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) reported its fourth monkeypox case in the country on Monday evening, August 22. 

According to the DOH, the patient is a 25-year-old with no documented history of travel to where there is a monkeypox outbreak.

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The case was tested and confirmed positive via real time Polymerase Chain Reaction, or PCR, by the DOH Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM).

The patient, whose origin and location was not disclosed, is being held in an isolation facility.

“Intensive case investigation and contact tracing is ongoing. To date, fourteen close contacts  have been identified. One is currently taking care of the case in the isolation facility while six are undergoing quarantine. One is a healthcare worker who had complete personal protection equipment (PPE) at time of consultation of case, assessed as low risk, and is now self-monitoring. Details of the other six are being verified,” the DOH said in its statement. 

The first monkeypox case in the Philippines was reported last July 29.

Monkeypox is a virus that causes fever symptoms as well as a distinctive bumpy rash. It occurs primarily in the tropical rainforest areas of Central and West Africa but has been occasionally exported to other regions, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The DOH urged the public to continue observing minimum health standards, noting that the  viral disease can be transmitted through close contact with an infected person, animal, or contaminated materials.

The WHO previously  called monkeypox a “global health emergency.” – with reports from Bonz Magsambol/Rappler.com