Pakistan Monkeypox Tally Climbs To 4 As Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Reports Its Third Case

Pakistan reported its fourth case of monkeypox as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province reported its third case. A passenger returning from abroad was detected with the virus in Peshawar.

The province’s health authorities confirmed monkeypox in the patient who hails from Orakzai. He was shifted to Peshawar’s Services Hospital after displaying symptoms at the airport, broadcaster GeoNews reported.

Authorities said that the patient’s condition is stable and he is being treated at the Services Hospital.

Out of the four mpox cases reported in Pakistan, three have been reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The patients are from the cities of Mardan, Nowshera and Orakzai. None of these cases were domestic and were reported in passengers returning from abroad.

The Pakistani health ministry issued fresh guidelines which has directed airport authorities at all the Pakistani international airports to ramp up screening, isolation and other preventive measures, including thermal scanning to curb the spread of the monkeypox virus.

Earlier in August, the WHO declared an international health emergency after a surge in cases linked to a new mpox strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has since spread beyond its borders.

Mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals that can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.

It causes fever, muscle pains and skin lesions and in an increasing number of cases, death.

The disease’s resurgence and the detection in the DRC of a new strain, dubbed Clade 1b, prompted the WHO to declare its highest international alert level on August 14.

It had previously declared an emergency over the international spread of the Clade 2b strain of mpox, which mostly affected men who have sex with men. That alarm was lifted in May 2023.

“The mpox outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighbouring countries can be controlled, and can be stopped,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is quoted as saying in the statement.

“The virus continues to circulate at low levels globally,” Tedros added, but the “African Region has had an unprecedented increase and geographical expansion”.

(with AFP inputs)