Pakistani airports on alert as health officials detect Mpox cases

In response to the growing concern of Mpox virus spread, Pakistan’s Border Health Services has issued a notification to intensify surveillance and precautionary measures at all entry points, including airports.

The move aims to prevent the potential spread of the virus into the country. The notification directs authorities to enhance screening measures for passengers, particularly those with suspicious wounds or symptoms associated with the virus.

Furthermore, the government has instructed to revive and strengthen existing systems at entry points to effectively deal with the situation.

The health ministry has confirmed at least one case of the Mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country, it said on Friday, as provincial health authorities reported they had detected at least three cases.

A health ministry spokesperson said the sequencing of the confirmed case was underway, and that it would not be clear which variant of Mpox the patient had until the process was complete.

A new form of the virus has triggered global concern because it seems to spread more easily though routine close contact. A case of the new variant was confirmed on Thursday in Sweden and linked to a growing outbreak in Africa, the first sign of its spread outside the continent.

However, the World Health Organisation has advised against any travel restrictions to stop the spread of Mpox.

Earlier on Friday, the health department in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said three cases had been detected in patients arriving from a Gulf country.

It was not clear whether the patient confirmed by the central health ministry was among the three.

A health officer in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Mardan district said separately the location of a confirmed mpox patient, a man who had recently returned from another Gulf country, was unknown.

He had initially received tests and advice at a hospital in the provincial capital Peshawar, Dr Javed Iqbal told reporters, but later returned to his home a few hours away in Mardan and then went to another district.

"When we visited his home in Mardan, it was locked from outside and his neighbours told us that the family has left for Dir," said the DHO Mardan. "We approached our fellow colleagues of the health department in Dir district, but they couldn’t trace him even in Dir."

The national health ministry said it was carrying out contact tracing of the patient it had identified, who they said was from Mardan.

They were also boosting airport surveillance and monitoring with extra health personnel, the ministry said in a statement.

The WHO declared the recent outbreak of the disease as a public health emergency of international concern after the new variant of the virus was identified.

Health ministry spokesman Sajid Shah said so far they had no confirmation of the new variant, but the sequencing of the sample of the confirmed patient was underway. "Once that's done, we will be able to say what strain is this," said Shah.

Salim Khan, the director general of health services for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said three patients were in quarantine.

Agencies