The advisory issued by the World Health Organization proved too accurate for comfort. Pakistan has diagnosed no less than three cases of mpox, the illness caused by the monkeypox virus, all three in KP, and all three in travellers who had arrived from the United Arab Emirates. Dubai there being a popular destination, if mpox can be caught there, it is perhaps too much to expect that it will not spread here somewhat like covid-19 did. The big difference, and potentially crucial one, between that epidemic and the present, is that the National Command and Operations Centre was only created an appreciable time after covid-19 had not just arrived in the country, but had spread. This time, before the mass outbreak, the NCOC has already swung into action, Initially, it has recommended stricter monitoring at the borders. If there was a lesson from covid-19, it was about how permeable borders are. They provided no protection against the spead of the disease. Unfortunatelly, mpox spreads exactly like that, being a viral disease which spreads through contact. Hopefully, it is not as dreadful, but it does lead to unsightly pustules which form scabs, like smallpox, which has been eliminated.
The WHO has also issued a warning against the spread of the Zika virus. Pakistan would be particularly vulnerable, because it is transmitted by the bite of infected aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which also spread the virus causing dengue, a disease which has been increasing in Pakistan. While the zika virus generally only causes flu=like symptoms, which are only fatal if there are unforeseen complications, if expecting mothers are infected, their children would be infected, and would suffer from microcephaly, which would leave them congenital idiots who could only be a burden on society. Like dengue, the Zika virus is also a gift of global warming, for whereas its original habitat of its vector, the aedes aegypti mosquito, is becoming uncomfortably warm, Pakistan is warming up to achieve its standards. The mobility which is both the result and cause of globalisation is not helping health authorities.
While the primary responsibility for health rests with the provincial governments, that for the borders rests with the federal. The challenge is now present, and one disease is present. The problem with the second is that it does not reuire hamns to bring it, just clouds of mosquitoes that have brought it before. These are not unfamiliar diseases, and recent experience must be used to combat these twin menaces.
