PESHAWAR: A second case of Mpox virus infection has been confirmed in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday.
According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department, within a week, the second case of Mpox reported in Nowshera district. Dr. Irshad Roghani, Director of Public Health, said that infected person is a 47-year-old resident of Nowshera, adjacent the Peshawar, the provincial capital of the province.
The first case of Mpox in the province this year was reported on August 15, 2014, in Mardan district.
In a video message released on Friday, Dr. Roghani detailed that the new case was identified at Peshawar airport on Thursday morning. The individual was detected during routine screening of passengers arriving from the Gulf on an Air Arabia flight.
The screening team promptly transported the suspected case to Police Hospital Peshawar for further examination and isolation. Following a review of the patient’s travel history, blood samples were sent to the Public Health Reference Laboratory at Khyber Medical University (KMU), where Mpox infection was confirmed on Friday.
For further analysis, including genetic sequencing of the Mpox variant, the blood sample has been sent to the National Institute of Health in Islamabad. The findings will be shared with relevant stakeholders and the media once available.
Dr. Roghani praised the surveillance team for their swift detection and isolation of the patient at the airport, which has helped prevent potential spread of the virus. The patient is currently in isolation at Police Hospital and is reported to be in stable condition.
Dr. Roghani also noted that the patient, a welder by profession, lived in a shared apartment with about seven others. Symptoms similar to those of Mpox were reported by another resident of the same apartment. The patient began experiencing fever and skin lesions on August 11, which worsened upon his arrival in Peshawar, leading to his isolation and subsequent testing.
