The Philippines became the first country in the Western Pacific Region to conduct an intra-action review (IAR) of mpox. During an exercise from 12-13 March 2025, over 80 representatives and experts from various sectors — health, the environment, food and drugs administration, border control, civil society and academia — came together to evaluate the Philippines’ response to mpox to date and chart the course for the year ahead.
Mpox remains one of the diseases classified by WHO as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005. WHO’s Emergency Committee recommends that countries periodically review the status of mpox, develop and implement national mpox plans, and evaluate response efforts through intra- or after-action reviews. An IAR is one of several tools that enable countries to monitor and strengthen national public health capacities under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005). In line with this, an overarching recommendation from the recent mpox IAR in the Philippines is centered on improving coordination and partnership mechanisms between agencies, clinicians, and communities to ensure activation of systems for a more efficient operation from preparedness to response.
Commitment to emergency preparedness and response
Prompt efforts by the Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH) to implement mpox recommendations, illustrates the country’s commitment to emergency preparedness. Immediately after mpox was declared a PHEIC in August 2024, the DOH established an interim mpox task force to coordinate response efforts. Since then, the country has employed a multisectoral approach to preventing, detecting, and responding to this evolving public health event.
Noting the importance of the IAR, Undersecretary for Health Dr Gloria Balboa shared: “This qualitative review will allow us to draw on lessons learned, improve coordination, and optimize the effectiveness of our interventions. More than just a retrospective analysis, this review is an opportunity to refine our national response, protect public health, and build resilience against future health threats. We take this opportunity to reflect on our journey—celebrate our successes, identify challenges and gaps, and recalibrate strategies as we move from the 2024 National Action Plan (NAP) and develop the 2025 NAP.”
Multisectoral coordination to strengthen the public health workforce
The emergence of new strains and the re-emergence of mpox serve as a constant reminder of the interconnectedness of global health and the need for cross-sectoral collaboration among the public health workforce. After the response to the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the need to streamline efforts of existing response networks, WHO established the Global Health Emergency Corps (GHEC) in 2023. Through GHEC, WHO supports countries to strengthen, standardize and scale national health emergency workforce capacities. During an emergency response, GHEC convenes public health workforce with the objective of strengthening the response to health emergencies.
The mpox response in the Philippines brought together diverse expertise from across the health workforce – including some who may not routinely work together, including: infectious disease experts, sexual health clinicians, dermatologists, surveillance and public health officers, regulatory experts and representatives from communities and civil society organizations-. “By pooling our capacities and resources, we will be better prepared to face future public health challenges. We are all in this together, “ said Yui Sekitani Technical Officer, WHO Emergencies Programme in the Philippines.
WHO is grateful for contributions from the Gates Foundation that have made this work possible.