Islamabad, Aug 31: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has announced a third confirmed case of monkeypox in barely two weeks. Dr. Irshad Roghani, the director of public health, revealed that a 51-year-old tourist from the Orakzai area had contracted the virus after landing at Bacha Khan Airport during a trip overseas.
Dr. Roghani claims that the suspected patient was discovered by airport medical teams during standard passenger screening. The patient was taken right away for diagnostic testing to Police Line Hospital in Peshawar.
He continued by saying that blood samples were quickly taken by Police Lines Hospital’s Rapid Response teams and submitted to Khyber Medical University’s (KMU) Public Health Reference Laboratory, where the infection was verified.
The patient is presently undergoing care in Police Line Hospital’s Isolation Ward and is in a stable condition. In just two weeks, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has seen three confirmed cases.On August 15, 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public health emergency of international concern due to the spreading outbreak in Africa and the appearance of a new viral type in numerous countries. That same day, the first case in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year was discovered.
All of the verified cases in KP concern visitors who had just returned to Pakistan from outside.
A Mardan area resident reported the first instance, Nowshera reported the second, and a traveler from the Orakzai district reported the third. The patients’ viral infection with the Clade 2B strain was verified by genetic sequencing of the first two cases.
