Pakistan’s 2nd mpox case detected in Peshawar: health official

Pakistan’s second case of the mpox virus (previously monkeypox) has been reported at the Peshawar airport, the national health coordinator confirmed on Friday.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) last week declared the recent outbreak of the disease as a public health emergency of international concern after the new variant of the virus, Clade 1b, was identified.

The Clade 1b variant has triggered global concern due to the ease with which it spreads through routine close contact.

However, the mpox outbreak is not another Covid-19, the WHO has said, because much is already known about the virus and the means to control it.

“A second case of mpox has been reported in Pakistan, which has come from a Gulf country,” Dr Malik Mukhtar Ahmad, the Prime Minister’s coordinator for health, was quoted as saying by PTV News.

“The health desk at the Peshawar airport shifted the patient to a hospital,” Dr Mukhtar added.

The health coordinator did not specify whether the virus strain of the case had been confirmed so far.

The health ministry clarified earlier this week that the first mpox case detected in Pakistan was of the clade 2 variety and that no cases of the clade 1b strain of the disease have been diagnosed.

Dr Mukhtar further said that the health ministry was ensuring continuous monitoring of the situation through an “effective system of screening and surveillance at all airports”.

The staff of Border Health Services were engaged at airports and entry points for scrutiny of suspected cases and to ensure “serious steps to keep the public safe from epidemics”, PTV News quoted Dr Mukhtar as saying.

Dr Naseem Akhtar, the focal person at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), had said on Monday that a 47-year-old traveller from the Middle East was referred by the airport authorities to Pims on suspicion of being infected with mpox.

The individual was working as a labourer in the Middle East and was a resident of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Akhtar had said.

A day ago, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued an urgent advisory concerning the outbreak, Radio Pakistan reported.

The advisory aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the current global and national situation and offer guidance to all relevant stakeholders on prevention, detection, and response strategies.

The WHO last week sounded its highest level of alert over the outbreak in Africa after cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo spread to nearby countries. There have been 27,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, mainly among children, in DRC since the current outbreak began in January 2023.

One case each of the clade 1b variant has been confirmed in Sweden and Thailand so far — the first signs of its spread outside the continent. However, the WHO has not urged any travel restrictions to curb the spread of mpox.

The disease presents with flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild but can kill, and children, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of complications.