Two more cases of mpox have been detected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial health department said on Friday, bringing the nationwide tally to three so far.
A day earlier, the first suspected case of mpox this year was reported, prompting the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to issue an advisory on measures to deal with the disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday declared the outbreak in Africa a public health emergency of international concern, its highest level of alert, after cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) spread to nearby countries.
Pakistan has had cases of mpox, also called monkeypox, previously. It was not immediately clear which variant was detected in the patients.
Two of the patients had been confirmed to have mpox, said Salim Khan, the KP director general of health services.
A third patient’s samples had been sent to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Islamabad, for confirmation, he said, adding all three patients were being quarantined.
The viral infection was detected in the patients on their arrival from the United Arab Emirates, the provincial health department said.
A spokesperson for Pakistan’s national health ministry said Pakistan has detected one suspected case of mpox, adding that the patient had arrived from a Gulf country.
Reuters quoted the health ministry as saying that it had not detected any new variant of mpox in the country.
Global health officials on Thursday confirmed an infection with a new strain of the mpox virus in Sweden and linked it to a growing outbreak in Africa.
There have been 27,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, mainly among children, in the DRC since the current outbreak began in January 2023. This year alone, the disease has killed 548 people so far in the African country.
The disease, caused by the monkeypox virus, can cause a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes and fever and can make some people very ill, the WHO website says.
