Pakistan on Thursday reported its first case of monkeypox (Mpox) OF 2024 diagnosed in a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa citizen who recently returned home from Saudi Arabia. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared mpox a public health emergency of international concern, after rising cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the potential for further spread.
The officials from the federal health ministry said that the man belongs to Dir and is currently residing in Mardan, as per Pakistan's Geo News. The infected man was detected with Mpox following his return from kingdom on August 3, the officials said.
Citing the health department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, news agency Reuters said that Pakistan has detected three patients diagnosed with the Mpox.
In 2023 Pakistan confirmed nine cases of Mpox, all among travellers returning from the Middle East and other countries. One patient, who was co-infected with HIV and Mpox, later died in Islamabad.
In Sweden, health officials said Thursday they have identified the first case of a person with the more infectious form of mpox first seen in eastern Congo. The Swedish public health agency said in a statement the patient recently sought health care in Stockholm.
“In this case a person has been infected during a stay in the part of Africa where there is a major outbreak of (the more infectious mpox),” the agency said.
Magnus Gisslen, a state epidemiologist with the Swedish health agency, said the person had been treated and given “rules of conduct”.
What Is Mpox
Mpox, once known as monkeypox, is a viral infection closely related to smallpox. Initial symptoms include a fever, headache, swelling of the lymph nodes and muscle aches. A typical rash follows, mainly on the face, hands and feet.
The spread of mpox through certain African countries led the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to declare earlier this week mpox a public health emergency of continental security.
This is the first time the organisation has issued such an alert since it was established in 2017.
The situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa has been particularly concerning for more than a year.
There are two types or clades of mpox - Clade II and clade I.
Clad II originates in west Africa, is less severe and has a fatality rate of up to 1 per cent (in other words, roughly one in 100 are expected to die from it).
clade I, however, from central Africa, has a fatality rate of up to 10 per cent (up to one in ten die).
