Negros Oriental’s Provincial Health Office (PHO) is seeking a repeat testing of an infant for mpox (formerly monkeypox) amid “baffling” circumstances surrounding the baby’s infection.

Dr. Liland Estacion, PHO chief, said in an interview yesterday that the six-month-old boy neither had a history of travel nor did his parents or other family members.

Contact tracing also did not point to any potential source of the infection, she said.

“I am confused because the parents and relatives who had contact with the baby did not have rashes and other symptoms of mpox,” Estacion said.

The baby was diagnosed recently with mpox symptoms, and subsequent test results from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Metro Manila confirmed the viral disease, she added.

Estacion ordered a team from the PHO to visit the patient in an undisclosed location yesterday to collect samples from lesions or scabs for a repeat laboratory analysis.

This is the first local confirmed mpox case in Negros Oriental.

She said a teacher was earlier confirmed to have been infected with mpox, but she contracted and recovered from the disease before returning to the province.

Estacion, however, said there is no cause for concern even if mpox spreads in Negros Oriental as the disease is treatable.

Mpox is transmitted between humans through close contact with an infected person and is usually mild.

However, Estacion emphasized the need for patients’ isolation to prevent its spread. (PNA)