The provincial government of Negros Occidental has allocated P15 million for the purchase of monkeypox test kits, as the Provincial Health Office and the City Health Office of Bacolod formulate uniform protocols related to the viral disease, Provincial Inter-Agency Task Force action officer and Provincial Administrator Atty. Rayfrando Diaz, said.
Diaz said they are also preparing for the training of some medical technologists, to be undertaken by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), to administer RT-PCR testing on suspected monkeypox cases.
Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, earlier said that they have already identified areas of concern, protocol for monitoring, and referral for monkeypox swab tests.
The Cadiz District Hospital has been identified as the health facility with quarantine or isolation area for monkeypox cases in Negros Occidental.
The Department of Health has confirmed the detection of a first monkeypox case in Iloilo.
According to the World Health Organization, monkeypox is a rare disease caused by the monkeypox virus with symptoms similar to smallpox but is less contagious and causes less severe illness. It spreads mostly through skin-to-skin contact with those who have rashes or open lesions, different from the coronavirus disease 2019 which spreads mostly through air./GB
