Pakistan adopts safety measures after mpox detected in Peshawar

Passengers were being screened at the airport and an isolation ward was set up in a hospital in Peshawar on Friday, after Pakistan’s health ministry confirmed at least one case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country.

It was not clear whether it was of the new variant or of the clade that has been spreading globally since 2022.

The WHO on Wednesday sounded its highest level of alert over the outbreak in Africa after cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo spread to nearby countries.

Earlier, a Pakistani health official Dr. Irshad Ali Roghani, director of public health at Directorate-General Health Services of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said authorities would be taking all necessary measures to prevent and control any spread of the virus.

The disease leads to flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions.

It is usually mild but can kill, with children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, all at higher risk of complications.