Pakistan’s health ministry on Friday confirmed at least one case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country. The officials did not mention the strain of the virus.
“The individual, who recently returned from the Gulf region, is exhibiting minor symptoms consistent with mpox,” Sajid Shah, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, confirmed. “Samples have been collected and sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH) for confirmation.”
Two new cases of mpox, previously known as monkeypox, were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the provincial health department earlier said on August 16, but later withdrew the statement that three mpox patients had been detected in Pakistan this week.
NCOC issues advisory
The first suspected case of mpox was reported just a day earlier, prompting the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) to issue an advisory on handling the disease.
Pakistan recorded cases of mpox in the past, but it remained unclear which variant was detected in those patients.
Health Ministry spokesman Sajid Shah said, “So far, we have no confirmation of the new variant, but the sequencing of the sample from the confirmed patient is underway. Once that’s done, we will be able to say what strain this is.”
According to the NCOC advisory, mpox has been reported in all WHO regions, including 122 countries over the last years. “In Pakistan, a total of 11 cases with one death has been reported since first cases were detected in April 2023,” it added.
On August 14, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the outbreak in Africa a public health emergency of international concern — their highest level of alert — following the spread of cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and nearby countries. Outside Africa, the case of the new variant was confirmed on Thursday in Sweden and linked to a growing outbreak in Africa.
What is mpox and how dangerous it is?
Mpox is a viral disease related to the now-eradicated smallpox virus. According to WHO, it can spread through close contact, such as touching, kissing, or sex, as well as through contaminated materials like sheets, clothing, and needles.
Initial symptoms generally resemble those of the flu—fever, chills, exhaustion, headache, and muscle weakness—often followed by a painful or itchy rash with raised lesions that scab over and resolve within a few weeks.
Mpox is classified into two genetic clades, I and II. A clade is a broad grouping of viruses that have evolved over decades, displaying distinct genetic and clinical differences.
Clade II was responsible for the global outbreak that was declared a global health emergency from July 2022 to May 2023. However, the current outbreak is driven by clade I, which causes more severe disease.
The subtype responsible for most of the ongoing spread, clade Ib, is relatively new.
“Because of a number of different factors, Ib has emerged as a new mutation that is adapted to humans,” explained Dr. Daniel Bausch, senior adviser for global health security at FIND, a global nonprofit focused on health equity.