- First mpox case in Pakistan was not a new strain and the virus was classified as Clade 2b: health ministry
ISLAMABAD: Another suspected monkeypox (mpox) case was reported at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) in Islamabad, the hospital officials confirmed on Monday.
The 47-year-old patient, a resident of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), had recently returned from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Dr Nasim Akhtar, the hospital’s focal person, stated that the man exhibited symptoms consistent with mpox and has been admitted to a specially designated ward for further observation and treatment.
This new suspected case follows the previous confirmation of three mpox infections in Pakistan, with another suspected case still awaiting confirmation.
Last week’s mpox case not a new variant
Meanwhile, the health officials on Monday confirmed that the mpox case announced last week in Pakistan was not the new strain spreading through Africa.
The 34-year-old man who had recently returned from a Gulf country was diagnosed as having been infected by mpox virus on Friday. “However, it was not the new strain and the virus has been classified as Clade 2b,” the health ministry said in a statement on Monday.
“Currently, the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is primarily associated with Clade 1b. Notably, as of now, there have been no reported cases of Clade 1b in Pakistan,” the statement said.
Mpox infections surged worldwide in May 2022, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men due to the Clade 2b subclade, but cases have largely subsided.
The World Health Organization declared last week the rapid spread of the new Clade 1b strain in Africa a public health emergency of international concern — the highest alarm it can sound.
Sweden’s Public Health Agency said Thursday that it had registered a case of the Clade 1b subclade, the first to be diagnosed out of Africa.
Around 16,000 cases have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the epicentre of the epidemic which has killed 548 people in the country so far.
Meanwhile in a separate development, the first confirmed mpox patient in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has gone missing from his home in Mardan. The individual, who had also returned from Saudi Arabia, was diagnosed with mpox in Peshawar. However, when a medical team visited his residence to provide health guidelines, they found the house locked. Further investigation by the District Health Officer (DHO) in the patient’s native area in Dir revealed that he was not present there either.
In related global development, health officials on Thursday confirmed an infection with a new strain of the mpox virus in Sweden, which has been linked to a growing outbreak in Africa. This marks the first instance of the strain’s spread outside the African continent.
Since the start of the current outbreak in January 2023, there have been 27,000 reported cases and over 1,100 deaths, primarily among children, in Congo.
The disease, caused by the mpox virus, typically presents with flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. While generally mild, mopox can be fatal, especially for children, pregnant women, and individuals with weakened immune systems, including those with HIV.
