All travelers, including OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), tourists, and foreigners, arriving in and departing from the Philippines must now declare if they have exhibited symptoms such as 'rashes, vesicles, or blisters' within the last 30 days before their journey. This declaration is part of the country's enhanced surveillance measures against mpox (formerly known as monkeypox). This new requirement is incorporated into the updated e-travel form that passengers must complete online. It is integral to the data collection for individuals entering and exiting the Philippines, which is utilized for border control, health surveillance, and economic data analysis.
The Philippine Department of Health (DOH) announced on Thursday that this additional measure is designed to 'prevent the entry of additional mpox cases from abroad, particularly clade 1b'. There has been a minor but significant alteration in the screening questions posed by the DOH Bureau of Quarantine (BOQ) to travelers as part of the electronic travel form. If a traveler responds 'yes' to having been ill in the past 30 days, the dropdown list now includes the option 'rashes, vesicles, or blisters'. The Philippine health ministry emphasized the importance of travelers answering this question honestly.
The DOH stated that if a traveler is identified as coming from a country with an mpox outbreak, has a history of exposure to mpox cases, or shows signs and symptoms of the disease, the etravel.gov.ph system will alert the Bureau of Immigration and the DOH-BOQ. The traveler will then undergo a secondary screening and, if deemed a suspected case, will be transferred to an mpox referral hospital.
The Philippine health ministry reported on Wednesday two new mpox cases, increasing the number of active cases to five. Since July 2022, the country has recorded a total of 14 mpox cases, of which nine have fully recovered since 2023. Health officials noted that common symptoms of mpox include a skin rash or mucosal lesions, which can persist for two to four weeks, accompanied by fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy, and swollen lymph nodes. Mpox has been a public health issue in parts of Africa since 1970, but gained global attention in 2022 when it surged internationally, prompting the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare a global health emergency. This declaration was lifted 10 months later. However, a new strain of the virus, known as clade 1b, has once again captured global attention after the WHO declared a new health emergency.
