KP reports 2 more monkeypox cases, taking countrywide tally to 3
According to Health Ministry, it had not detected any new variant of mpox in the country.
At least two more patients have been diagnosed with the monkeypox virus, also called mpox, health authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa confirmed on Friday, taking the countrywide tally to 3.
All patients, whose cases have been confirmed by the health department in KP, were detected with the virus following their arrival from an Arab country.
A day earlier, the first suspected case of monkeypox this year was reported, prompting the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to issue an advisory on measures to deal with the disease.
Two of the patients had been confirmed to monkeypox virus said KP director general of health services Salim Khan.
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.
On Thursday, the first monkeypox case this year was confirmed after a 34-year-old male resident of the Lower Dir district, who currently resides in Mardan, tested positive after he returned to Pakistan from a Middle Eastern country on August 3, an official from the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHS, R&C) told the publication.
“Provincial health authorities are now engaged in contact tracing,” the official added.
In reaction to the confirmed monkeypox case, provincial health authorities have implemented a range of proactive steps. An advisory has been issued to hospital medical superintendents and district health officers, detailing the correct procedures for collecting, storing, and transporting samples to the Public Health Reference Laboratory (PHRL).
Hospitals have been instructed to adhere to standard operating procedures to ensure accurate diagnosis of monkeypox cases. Furthermore, they have been briefed on the symptoms of the disease to help identify and test potential cases effectively.
Meanwhile, Health Ministry spokesman Sajid Shah said so far they had no confirmation of the new variant, but the sequencing of the sample of the confirmed patient was underway.
“Once that’s done, we will be able to say what strain is this,” said Shah.
On Aug 14, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the mpox 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.
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.
