An infection control alert has been issued in the country’s financial hub following the confirmation of at least one monkeypox case in the country coupled with the unavailability of the vaccine against the disease. The alert, applicable to the city’s private and government-run hospitals, comes a day after the Federal Health Ministry on Thursday confirmed the diagnosis of mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country.
New Varient of Virus Spreading across the World:
A new variant of the virus has caused worldwide worry due to its propensity for accelerated transmission between people in daily contact. The first case of the new variant was detected in Sweden on Thursday, having been linked to a surging outbreak in Africa, marking the first hint at its spread beyond the continent.
A patient showing his hand with a sore caused by an infection of the mpox virus, in the isolation area at the Arzobispo Loayza hospital, in Lima, Peru. Health alert applicable in all private and government hospitals.
Experts stress hygiene, use of N-95 mask to prevent mpox spread Dr. Saeed underscores unavailability of vaccine against disease KARACHI: An infection control alert has been issued in the country’s financial hub following the confirmation of at least one monkeypox case in the country coupled with the unavailability of vaccine against the disease.
The alert, applicable to all private and government-run hospitals in the city, comes a day after the Federal Health Ministry on Thursday confirmed that the mpox virus was diagnosed in a patient who returned from a Gulf country.
A new form of the virus has triggered global concern because it seems to spread more easily through routine close contact. A case of the new variant was confirmed on Thursday in Sweden and linked to a growing outbreak in Africa, the first sign of its spread outside the continent.
Mpox is a viral disease and a relative of the now-eradicated smallpox virus. It is known to be spread by any kind of close contact and contaminated materials like sheets, clothing, and needles, according to the World Health Organization. One of the spokespeople of the Ministry said that sequencing on the confirmed case was being done and, accordingly, it would be known later which mpox variant the patient was suffering from.
Meanwhile, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health authorities confirmed a case of mpox after taking back their earlier statement that three mpox patients had been detected there this week on arrival from the United Arab Emirates.
What Experts said About Disease:
Health experts have said that the disease can be transferred from animals to humans as well as from one person to another, amid concerns over a global emergence declared by the WHO over its spread. It is to be noted that in 2022, nine cases of Mpox were reported in Pakistan, all amongst returning travelers from the Middle East and other countries, with one fatality of a patient in Islamabad who was co-infected with HIV and mpox.
As such, experts have termed the N-95 mask essential in relation to hygiene to prevent the spread of Mpox. This can be diagnosed by the Polymerase Chain Reaction, PCR test, the very one used for the detection of COVID-19. Though experts claim that the mpox vaccine does give some protection against the disease, Infectious disease specialist of DOW University Professor Dr Saeed Khan has said that vaccine against the disease is unavailable at present.
Risk and symptoms:
The initial symptoms of mpox include fever, chills, muscle pain, swelling of the glands, exhaustion, headache and muscle weakness. They are often followed by a painful or itchy rash with raised lesions that scab over and resolve over a period of weeks. Finally, the deadlier clade 1 has been endemic in the Congo Basin in central Africa for many years. The less severe clade 2 has become endemic in parts of West Africa.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has, however, indicated that while some outbreaks of clade I mpox have killed up to 10 per cent of people who get sick, more recent outbreaks have had lower death rates. Clade II has a death rate of less than 0.2 per cent. Those at risk of having more severe infections include infants and people with severely weakened immune systems and pregnant women.
From January 2022 to June 2024, there were 208 deaths and more than 99,000 mpox cases reported across 116 countries, according to the WHO. This year, in June alone, 934 new cases were reported, wherein the bulk of these came from the African Region, followed by the region of the Americas and the European region with 61%, 19%, and 11%, respectively. The latest surge has been of the deadlier clade 1 and its new mutated variant.