ISLAMABAD: A 44-year-old man, hailing from the Gujarat district in Punjab, has tested positive for monkeypox virus or mpox after arriving in Pakistan from a gulf state marking the seventh mpox case in the country this year and the sixth since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an emergency last month.

After being suspected of carrying the virus, the patient, who landed at Islamabad Airport on September 14 (Saturday), was taken to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).

The health officials confirmed that samples sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH) tested positive for mpox. The patient is reported to be in stable condition.

“This is the seventh confirmed case of mpox in Pakistan this year,” said a health official in the federal health ministry.

“Five previous cases were confirmed at the Khyber Medical University laboratory in Peshawar, while this latest patient is being treated in Islamabad,” the official said.

Mpox is a virus that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions and, while usually mild, it can kill. Children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are all at higher risk of complications.

Earlier on Wednesday, one more mpox case was reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), taking the total tally of the virus to six in Pakistan, provincial Health Minister Syed Qasim Ali Shah said

Moreover on Sunday, at least three passengers travelling to Karachi were suspected of monkeypox in a single day at the Jinnah International Airport, Geo News reported citing sources.

All three passengers returned to Pakistan from Middle Eastern countries, the sources added.

Following global health concerns, WHO has approved MVA-BN as the first pre-qualified vaccine against monkeypox virus, according to The News on Saturday.

“This first pre-qualification of a vaccine against mpox is an important step in our fight against the disease, both in the context of the current outbreaks in Africa and in future,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The development comes as the United Nations’ health centric-body had declared the mpox outbreak as an “international health emergency” in July.

The spike in mpox cases in Peshawar has triggered concerns among health experts and the public alike, with calls for increased awareness and stricter travel guidelines.

Authorities continue to monitor the situation closely, particularly in light of the WHO’s recent emergency declaration regarding the virus, he added and lauded Border Health Services (BHS) to finally detect an mpox case other than Peshawar.

Three suspected mpox patients were sent home in Karachi after one showed no symptoms and the tests for the other two came back negative, according to the Sindh health department.

Geo News, citing sources, reported on Sunday that they were suspected of being infected with mpox after returning to Pakistan from Middle Eastern countries at the Jinnah International Airport. 

The patient with no symptoms of the virus was sent home yesterday, the health department stated that the other two suspects, were also discharged from the hospital after testing negative. 

The two had arrived in Karachi from Jeddah on Saturday, according to the health department.

All three individuals were immediately taken to the Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital and Research Centre, as confirmed by hospital officials.

Currently, there are six confirmed mpox cases in Pakistan, with the majority reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Mpox is a virus that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions and, while usually mild, it can kill. Children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are all at higher risk of complications, reported Reuters.

The infectious disease has African countries in turmoil including DR Congo where there have been 27,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, the majority of the deaths occurred among children.

The outbreak began in January 2023 in the Congo and in August this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the recent outbreak of the disease a public health emergency of international concern after the new variant was identified.

KARACHI: As Pakistan continues to report fresh monkeypox cases, three more passengers travelling to Karachi were suspected of the disease, sources told Geo News on Sunday. 

According to the sources, the three passengers, including a female, were returning to Pakistan from Middle Eastern countries and had landed at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport. 

The suspected patients have been shifted to Sindh government’s Infectious Diseases Hospital, said the sources, adding that they will be kept in isolation ward until the test report comes.

The total tally of confirmed mpox cases is six across Pakistan with most cases reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Mpox is a virus that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions and, while usually mild, it can kill. Children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are all at higher risk of complications, reported Reuters.

In August, the WHO The World Health Organisation declared the recent outbreak of the disease a public health emergency of international concern after the new variant was identified.

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

Health Ministry officials have raised alarm bells over the performance of Border Health Services (BHS) personnel after a monkeypox patient went undetected at the Islamabad airport only to be later found being infected with the infectious disease in Peshawar, sources told Geo News on Thursday.

The sources added the passenger, who reached the Islamabad airport on September 7 from a Gulf country, managed to reach Peshawar due to the negligence of BHS staff stationed at the airport in the federal capital.

The development comes after the country’s mpox tally reached six — the fifth since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the recent outbreak of the disease as a public health emergency of international concern — after the said passenger hailing from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower Dir area was found carrying the virus.

As per the WHO, mpox is a viral disease related to the now-eradicated smallpox virus and can spread through any close contact and through contaminated materials like sheets, clothing and needles.

Initial symptoms of the disease include fever, chills, muscle pain, swelling of the glands, exhaustion, headache and muscle weakness which are often followed by a painful or itchy rash with raised lesions that scab over and resolve over a period of weeks.

The fact that an mpox patient went undetected is concerning as the government last month issued strict guidelines provisioning screening, isolation and other preventive measures at all international airports across the country in light of the threat posed by the recent global outbreak of the virus.

As part of the government directives, BHS was made the lead agency responsible for the overall coordination and management of mpox-related operations at international airports — manages the isolation and safe transportation of suspected Mpox cases to designated medical facilities.

The authority was also made responsible for reporting confirmed cases to local and national health authorities and maintaining surveillance data.

Furthermore, the guidelines also provisioned thermal scanning at all entry points with BHS personnel required to conduct visual inspections and symptom checks to identify any passengers displaying signs of the disease.

However, the said mpox-infected passenger was neither questioned nor examined by the BHS staff, despite showing visible symptoms, The News reported on Thursday citing officials from the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination (NHS, R&C).

Lamenting the efficacy of the screening being carried out, the technical working group on mpox (TWG) — which was constituted after WHO’s declaration and included officials from key public health bodies such as the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), and others — has said that surveillance at all other points of entry and airports other than Peshawar is very poor.

Furthermore, the officials have said that the patient stayed at a hotel contacted a skin specialist in Peshawar and was diagnosed with the virus after being tested at the Khyber Medical University.