Mpox virus detected in Pakistan, health authorities say

PESHAWAR - Pakistan’s Health Ministry has confirmed at least one case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country, it said on Aug 16, though they did not yet know the strain of the virus.

A Health Ministry spokesman said the sequencing of the confirmed case was under way, and that it would not be clear which variant of mpox the patient had until the process was complete.

A new form of the virus has triggered global concern because it seems to spread more easily though routine close contact.

A case of the new variant

was confirmed on Aug 15 in Sweden

and linked to a growing outbreak in Africa, the first sign of its spread outside the continent.

However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has advised against any travel restrictions to stop the spread of mpox.

The health department in the northern Khyber Pakhtunkwa province said on Aug 16 that one mpox case had been confirmed in the area, withdrawing a previous statement that three mpox patients had been detected there this week on arrival from the United Arab Emirates.

A health officer in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mardan district said the location of a confirmed mpox patient, a man who had recently returned from Saudi Arabia, was unknown.

He had initially received tests and advice at a hospital in the provincial capital Peshawar, Dr Javed Iqbal told Reuters, but later returned to his home a few hours away in Mardan and then went to another district.

“When we visited his home in Mardan, it was locked from outside, and his neighbours told us that the family has left for Dir,” said the district health officer of Mardan.

“We approached our fellow colleagues at the health department in Dir district, but they couldn’t trace him even in Dir.”

The national Health Ministry said it was carrying out contact tracing of the patient it had identified, who it said was from Mardan.

It was also boosting airport surveillance and monitoring with extra health personnel, the ministry said in a statement. 

Health Ministry spokesman Sajid Shah said so far it had no confirmation of the new variant, but the sequencing of the sample of the confirmed patient was under way.

“Once that’s done, we will be able to say what strain is this,” said Mr Shah.

Global health officials on Aug 15 confirmed an infection with

a new strain of the mpox virus in Sweden

and linked it to a growing outbreak in Africa, the first sign of its spread outside the continent.

The WHO on Aug 14 declared the outbreak in Africa a public health emergency of international concern, its highest level of alert, after cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo spread to nearby countries. 

There have been 27,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, mainly among children, in Congo since the current outbreak began in January 2023.

The disease, caused by the monkeypox virus, leads to flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild but can be fatal, with children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems at higher risk of complications. REUTERS