KARACHI: The first locally transmitted suspected monkeypox (Mpox) case was reported in a child in Karachi on Friday.
According to reports, Muzammil, a seven-year-old Liyari inhabitant, has been admitted into the NICH’s isolation unit. He may have had the monkeypox virus, according to reports.
According to the hospital management, the NICH has set up a 7-bed monkey pox isolation ward. According to hospital authorities, the child had symptoms similar to chicken pox.
However, the father claimed that neither the child had any travel history nor were they visited by relatives from abroad. Four passengers, including teenagers, were confined on Thursday after arriving at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport with possible chicken pox symptoms. A Somalian citizen was among the travellers diagnosed with monkeypox.
He was recognised as Bashir Malam and arrived in Karachi on Fly Dubai flight FZ329. After the screening, he was confirmed carrying the monkeypox virus. Muhammad Javed, Ayub Khan and two other passengers from Sharjah to Karachi tested positive for the virus.
After the preliminary proceedings, Health Department shifted three passengers to the Bhataiabad.
Earlier, the infected passengers were kept in the isolation ward at the airport. The samples taken during the medical examination of the infected passengers would be sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad.
A meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) was told on Thursday that Pakistan has no vaccine available for treating pox. During the meeting, Pakistan decided to ask the World Health Organisation (WHO) to provide the pox vaccine.
A person can get pox from close contact with a person infected with pox through touching blisters or scabs and having any skin contact (including sexual contact); touching clothes, bedding, towels or personal items used by a person who has a pox rash, blisters or scabs; and coughs or sneezes from a person with pox.
