Pakistan: Health Ministry confirms first case of MPOX
Islamabad – Pakistan’s health ministry on Friday confirmed a first case of the coronavirus, saying sequencing is underway to determine whether it is the new variant.
“The first case of MPOX has been confirmed in Pakistan,” the Health Ministry spokesperson said in a statement. The patient, a 34-year-old man, hails from Mardan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.
According to Irshad Roghani, director of public health in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the infected person had mild symptoms. “Contact tracing of the affected person has been initiated and additional samples are being collected,” he told reporters.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday issued its highest level of international health alert over a resurgence of cases in Africa. The alert concerns a more dangerous variant (known as clade 1b) of the disease.
A case of the variant was confirmed in Sweden on Thursday, marking the first sign of its spread outside the continent.
This variant is more aggressive and deadly than clade 2, which caused the 2022-2023 epidemic, resulting in around 140 deaths out of around 90,000 cases.
2024-08-16 15:51:44