Pakistan Confirms Second Monkeypox Case in Two Days: Pakistan confirmed its second Monkeypox case in two days, raising the total to 04 since the World Health Organization declared the disease an emergency of international concern on August 14. Like the previous three, the new case was reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
National Health Services Ministry spokesman Sajid Shah confirmed that the newest mpox patient is a 47-year-old man who returned from a Gulf country on August 29. The Peshawar resident exhibited symptoms of the virus and was isolated by Border Health Services at Bacha Khan International Airport.
In Reply to a question, Mr. Shah told that authorities have begun tracing persons who may have been in contact with the patient to prevent local transmission. On Thursday, a 51-year-old man coming in Peshawar from Saudi Arabia was isolated at the airport due to same concerns.
The test samples of the patient were submitted to the Public Health Reference Lab at Khyber Medical University, where they tested positive on Friday. Dr. Irshad Ali Roghani, Director of Public Health in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said that the patient is now isolated at Services Hospital.
Pakistan has not reported any local transmission of mpox, with all four cases involving patients who arrived from foreign and were isolated by the Border Health Services at airports. Prime Minister’s Coordinator on Health, Dr. Malik Mukhtar Ahmad Bharath, admire the BHS for its role in monitoring incoming passengers.
He forced that Pakistan’s surveillance system is among the best globally, with BHS screening all passengers to prevent local transmission. As by Shah, the global mpox virus is divided into two main clades: clade I and clade II, with the 2022-2023 outbreak mostly connected to clade II, which typically causes milder symptoms.