Reuters Pakistan’s 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, though they did not yet know the strain of the virus.
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 Organization has advised against any travel restrictions to stop the spread of mpox.
The health department in the northern Khyber Pakhtunkwa province said on Friday one mpox case had been confirmed in the area, withdrawing a previous statement that three mpox patients had been detected there this week on arrival from the United Arab Emirates.
A health officer in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mardan district said the location of the confirmed mpox patient, a man the officer said had recently returned from Saudi Arabia, was unknown.