Pakistan confirms third mpox case in Peshawar resident after airport screening

A poster indicating an isolation ward, prepared for mpox patients, is seen at the Police and Services hospital in Peshawar on August 20, 2024. (AFP/File)

• Medical team at Peshawar airport identified mpox symptoms in the 51-year-old patient before running the tests
• Health ministry says contact tracing is in progress as the patient has been moved to the Police Services Hospital

ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: Pakistani health authorities confirmed a third mpox case in the country on Saturday, saying the patient, a resident of Peshawar, was diagnosed after the airport screening process following his return from another country.
Mpox causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. The World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries around the world to take precautionary measures after declaring the disease a public health emergency on August 14, as a new offshoot of the virus, first identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo, began spreading to other neighboring states.
Pakistan also announced precautionary measures against the disease, putting airports and border entry points on alert and calling for strict monitoring to prevent the spread of the virus.
The government confirmed two mpox cases in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in recent weeks, saying these individuals had a travel history and emphasizing that there had been no reports of local transmission.
“Yesterday, two suspected cases of M-pox at Peshawar Airport were isolated by the Border Health Services staff,” the health ministry said in a statement. “Samples were sent to the Peshawar Reference Public Laboratory at Khyber Medical University for diagnosis. One of the two samples tested positive. The affected individual is from Peshawar.”
The ministry informed contact tracing and screening of the affected person were being conducted, adding that the patient’s travel history includes Gulf countries.
“Following the recent emergency, the number of M-pox cases in Pakistan has reached three,” the statement added.
The spokesperson for the Public Health Department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Atta Ullah Khan, said the patient was 51-year-old who was traveling abroad before returning to his country.
Khan said the patient arrived at the Peshawar Airport on Thursday where the medical team identified the symptoms.
“The Rapid Response Team took wound swabs from the patient at the Police Hospital and sent them to the laboratory and the results of the test returned from the National Institute of Health on Friday late night,” he told Arab News.
He informed the infected individual was subsequently transferred to the Police Services Hospital, where a six-bed ward has been allocated specifically for mpox patients.
Reacting to the development, Prime Minister’s Coordinator for Health Dr. Mukhtar Bhart said Pakistan had formulated an effective strategy for the prevention of mpox.
“Border Health Services staff at all airports are working diligently,” he maintained. “Pakistan’s surveillance system for monitoring diseases is strong worldwide.”
He noted the federal and provincial administrations were jointly ensuring effective measures for the prevention of the disease.
Bhart also said the ministry of health and its subordinate institutions were actively engaged in ensuring all preventive measures.