On Sunday, Pakistan confirmed its second Monkeypox (mpox) case in two days, raising the total to four since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease an emergency of international concern on August 14. The new case, like the previous three, was reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.National Health Services (NHS) Ministry spokesman Sajid Shah confirmed that the latest mpox patient is a 47-year-old man who returned from a Gulf country on August 29. The Peshawar resident exhibited symptoms of the virus and was isolated by Border Health Services (BHS) at Bacha Khan International Airport.

In response to a question, Mr. Shah stated that authorities have begun tracing individuals who may have been in contact with the patient to prevent local transmission. Previously, on Thursday, a 51-year-old man arriving in Peshawar from Saudi Arabia was isolated at the airport due to similar concerns.The test samples of the patient were sent to the Public Health Reference Lab at Khyber Medical University, where they tested positive on Friday. Dr. Irshad Ali Roghani, Director of Public Health in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, stated that the patient is now isolated at Services Hospital.

Pakistan has not reported any local transmission of mpox, with all four cases involving patients who arrived from abroad and were isolated by the Border Health Services (BHS) at airports. Prime Minister’s Coordinator on Health, Dr. Malik Mukhtar Ahmad Bharath, praised the BHS for its role in monitoring incoming passengers.The strain identified in Pakistan is classified as clade IIb, a subclade of clade II. The current outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is associated with clade Ib (a subclade of clade I). There have been no reported cases of clade I in Pakistan to date.