A 25-year-old Pakistani man is diagnosed with the infectious viral disease, once known as monkeypox, after recently arriving from Saudi Arabia.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistani health authorities have confirmed the first case of mpox in the country.
The infectious viral disease, earlier known as monkeypox, was found in a 25-year-old Pakistani man who recently arrived in Islamabad from Saudi Arabia.
Sajid Shah, a health ministry official, said the patient has been quarantined in a hospital in the capital and contact tracing has begun.
“As yet there is no evidence of localised transmission of mpox in Pakistan, and the risk of international spread of disease from Pakistan remains low,” Shah told Al Jazeera.
He added that an alert has been issued to all airports in the country and to provincial health departments to ensure “surveillance, contact tracing and rapid identification of suspected cases”.
Mustafa Jamal Kazi, a senior official in the ministry, said the patient was sent into isolation on April 21 after his arrival in Pakistan.
“As the patient was quite unwell, we sent him to quarantine in a hospital here and conducted tests to determine what was wrong with him,” Kazi told Al Jazeera.
He said after mpox cases were detected in other countries, Pakistan increased its vigilance at all its international airports and deployed health teams.
“We have trained staff deployed at the airports, and they have been provided required logistics support, such as gloves, disinfectants, masks, among others,” Kazi said. “WHO [World Health Organization] procedures and precautionary measures and ambulances have been deployed as well.”
According to the WHO, mpox is an infectious disease caused by the monkeypox virus. The disease can be transmitted from infected animals to humans or from infected people to other people through close contact and droplets. It can cause a painful rash, fever, sore throat and swollen lymph nodes.
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