Pakistan has identified three cases of Mpox, including two newly confirmed cases, according to reports released on Friday.
This development comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa CDC have classified the outbreak as a global health emergency.
A 34-year-old man who had recently returned from Saudi Arabia initially reported the case.
Authorities confirmed two additional Mpox cases in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, raising concerns about the disease’s spread.
As of April 2023, Pakistan has documented 11 Mpox cases and one death.
Authorities have quarantined the new patients, but they have not yet determined if they carry the more dangerous clade 1b strain of Mpox, linked to the outbreak affecting around 13 countries in Africa.
On Thursday, health authorities in Sweden confirmed their first case of clade 1b, marking its spread outside Africa.
The WHO warns that this could lead to more cases in Europe, which reported around 300 Mpox cases linked to clade IIb during the 2022 outbreak.
Since the outbreak began in January 2023, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reported approximately 27,000 Mpox cases and over 1,100 deaths, with 548 of those fatalities occurring in 2024 alone.
The disease has also spread to Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.
Mpox, which can cause symptoms such as pus-filled lesions, fever, and muscle aches lasting from 2 to 4 weeks, is transmitted through contact with infected individuals, animals, or contaminated materials.
The current outbreak, driven by the novel and more virulent clade 1b, is more severe than the clade II strain responsible for last year’s infections.
Clade 1b causes higher severity, increased mortality, and affects children more due to its primary transmission through household contacts.
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