Pakistan reports its first case of monkeypox virus. The National Health Ministry reported the first case along with health advisory.
According to the Health Ministry, a person from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, returning from a Gulf country tested positive for the virus. A sample was sent to the National Institution of Health for confirmation. The affected person showed mild symptoms, and contact tracing is underway to get additional samples. Moreover, all the provinces are advised to appoint a focal person for the Monkeypox virus.
Border Health services have been instructed to ensure strict monitoring at all entry points. The spokesperson further reported that, to date, there have been 99,518 confirmed cases of monkeypox and 208 deaths across 122 countries.
Global health officials on Thursday confirmed an infection with the new strain of monkeypox virus in Sweden and linked it to the increasing outbreak of the virus in Africa. The case marked the first case of the spread of the virus outside the continent. World Health Organization has already declared it a Global Health Emergency.
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Swedish Health Officials stated that the person had been infected while in Africa.
The person is receiving treatment. “The emergence of a case on the European continent could spur rapid international spread of mpox,” said Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert and professor at Georgetown Law in Washington. “A case in Sweden most likely means dozens of undetected cases in Europe.”
Dr. Brian Ferguson of the University of Cambridge said that the case of monkeypox in Sweden is concerning but not unexpected, with respect to the severity of the outbreak of the virus in Africa. “There will likely be more here and in other parts of the world as there are currently no mechanisms in place to stop imported cases of monkeypox happening,” he said.