ISLAMABAD: A suspected case of Monkeypox (mpox) has been reported at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) Hospital in the federal capital, Islamabad.
According to media reports, Dr. Naseem Akhtar, the Focal Person of PIMS Hospital, has confirmed that the 47-year-old victim is a resident of Azad Kashmir. Dr. Naseem Akhtar said that the infected person came to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia. The sample of the infected person has been sent to NIH.
It should be noted that on August 16, two more cases of mpox were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, bringing the total number of infected people to three across the country.
A day earlier, the first suspected case of mpox was reported in Pakistan, after which the National Command and Operations Center (NCOC) issued an advisory on measures to deal with the disease.
The World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak in Africa a public health emergency of international concern, the organization’s highest level of alert, after cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo spread to neighboring countries.
There have been previous cases of mpox in Pakistan, but it was not immediately clear which variant the patients were diagnosed with.
Director General of Health Services of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Saleem Khan, said that mpox has been confirmed in two of the patients.
He added that the samples of the third patient have been sent to the National Health Institute in the capital, Islamabad, for confirmation.
He also mentioned that the three patients are being kept in quarantine. The provincial health department had stated that a viral infection has been diagnosed in patients coming from the United Arab Emirates.
