Suspected mpox patient confined in Marawi hospital

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Health officials are closely observing a woman, confined in the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City, showing symptoms of mpox.

However, the physicians Allen Minalang, chief of the Integrated Provincial Health Office-Lanao del Sur, and Kadil Sinolinding Jr., Bangsamoro regional health minister, separately told reporters on Saturday, November 23, that they still cannot confirm if the patient has indeed been afflicted with mpox without a result yet of the examination of her blood samples by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City.

Minalang said the patient is from Sitio Pimbago in Barangay Masao in Malabang town in the second district of Lanao del Sur.

Minalang said regional officials of the Ministry of Health-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. are together focusing attention on the condition of the patient at the Amai Pakpak Medical Center.

“We just need to wait for the report from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine. Only then can we say if the patient is sick of monkeypox, or not,” Minalang said.

Sinolinding, who is also a member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament, said the MoH-BARMM has intensified its campaign against the spread of monkeypox in towns in Lanao del Sur and in other provinces in the region after learning about the admission of a patient at the Amai Pakpak Medical Center in Marawi City who has recurring fever, skin rashes and blisters in her body.