MANILA — The Bureau of Quarantine has introduced a new update to the electronic travel (eTravel) form, which international travelers must fill out to prevent the entry of a deadly variant of mpox into the country, the Department of Health (DOH) announced on Thursday.
The eTravel form is an online document that travelers are required to complete both before departing and upon entering the country.
According to the DOH, if a traveler answers “yes” to having been ill in the past 30 days, the updated form will now provide a drop-down list that includes symptoms like “rashes, vesicles, or blisters,” which are indicative of mpox. Additional common symptoms of mpox are fever, headache, muscle pain, backache, fatigue, and swollen lymph nodes.
“It is crucial for all travelers to respond honestly to this question,” emphasized the DOH.
The DOH stated that the “small yet significant change” in the screening questions by the Bureau of Quarantine aims to help prevent the introduction of mpox cases, especially the Clade 1b variant, which is considered the more severe form of mpox currently raising global concerns.
“If the electronic form identifies a traveler as coming from a WHO-listed outbreak area, having a history of exposure to an mpox case, or displaying any related symptoms, the etravel.gov.ph system will immediately alert the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Quarantine,” the DOH noted.
Those travelers will then be referred to the Bureau of Quarantine for further screening. If the Bureau identifies a suspected case of mpox, “the individual will receive appropriate care and will be transported to an mpox referral hospital,” according to the health department.
The highly contagious Clade 1b strain of the mpox virus has resulted in hundreds of fatalities in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has also been detected in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Sweden.
As of now, the Philippines has identified 14 mpox cases since 2022, with five currently active. The DOH mentioned that the local cases are of the milder Clade 2 variant.