Dr. KC Halili says it’s time to stop pretending everything’s fine—because mpox is spreading, and the silence from the DOH is deafening.
As a sexual and reproductive health advocate, she’s calling out the Department of Health for downplaying what she believes is a rapidly escalating crisis.
With nearly a thousand cases reported this year and about 50 new ones each month, she warns that this isn’t just a medical issue anymore—it’s a public emergency waiting to explode.
“If HIV numbers got our attention,” she says, “Why are we waiting for mpox to get that bad before we act?”
What disturbs her most is the absence of transparency. There’s no central database for tracking mpox cases, forcing people to chase regional offices for numbers. For KC, that’s not just inefficient—it’s reckless. And while health authorities still argue that mpox isn’t sexually transmitted, most cases involve lesions in the genitals, even among children.
That, she says, points to a much more alarming reality we’re refusing to name.
She’s asking the hard questions: Why the silence? Why the delay? Why the disjointed response?
For Dr. KC Halili, mpox isn’t just spreading—it’s being ignored into disaster.
