Peshawar: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s health department has detected two more MPOX cases in the provincial capital, which carries the total number of patients infected with zoonotic ailments in the province this year to five.
Both cases, one of the 42 years and the other 20, were admitted to the Dermatology OPD of the Khyber’s teaching hospital a few days after the doctors suspected that they had symptoms of MPOX, authorities said, the authorities said. Sunrise.
They said that the president of the Dermatology Chamber, Dr. Mehran Khan, sent samples of suspects for his examination to the Public Health Reference Laboratory, where it was discovered that they suffered zoonotic disease.
The officials said that the Directorate of Public Health of the General Directorate (health services) had begun to evaluate their closest contacts to find if the infection had been transmitted to others.
The detection of their closest contacts begins, officials say
They said that the 42 -year -old man had arrived from Saudi Arabia a few days ago and visited the hospital for skin problems, while the other had contracted the disease of someone who had come from Dubai.
The officials said that the person suspected of transmitting MPOX was proven but it was discovered that it was negative.
“Both cases have been isolated and their contacts are being tracked by the tests,” Dr. Mussawir Manzoor, deputy director (public health), told Dr. Mussawir Manzoor. Sunrise. He said that both patients had been infected from Fuentes abroad and that they had nothing to do with local infection.
The official said that all aspects were being verified to ensure that the infection is not spread.
“We have altered the relevant health authorities to communicate with the families of the cases and try them in case they are symptomatic,” he said.
Dr. Mussawir said the province had registered 14 MPOX cases, including five in 2025, seven in 2024 and two in 2023.
He said that due to a strong surveillance system, the infection had not spread to the local population.
“According to the protocol, all patients are isolated and released only when their tests arise negative,” he said.
The official said that most cases had been identified at the Khan International Airport when they arrived from the Middle East and the suspects were isolated after the detection and subsequent tests in the Public Health Reference Laboratory (PHRL) at Khyber’s University of Medicine.
He said that all cases, including frescoes, had an epidemiological connection with the Middle East, but the department had already introduced a surveillance system at the district level to ensure that the disease is not spread.
Dr. Mussawir said the last patients belonged to the Peshawar district.
He said that the department had written a letter to the airport manager who was looking for details of the passengers who sat near the 42 -year -old player on the plane so that they could be examined and tested for MPOX.
He said there was a lot of awareness among people, since they maintained the distance of the patients because the possibilities of local propagation of the infection were zero.
Dr. Mussawir said that Khyber’s teaching hospital had played a vital role in identifying patients and their tests.
He said that the first MPOX case in the province was examined and identified by Dr. Mehran Khan in KTH in 2023.
“Our province also has the advantage of PHRL where the tests are processed in 24 hours. Before the PHRL establishment, we used to send samples to the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, which took longer to provide results, ”he said.
The official said that the department had already issued guidelines for all hospitals of the district headquarters with respect to the signs and symptoms of patients with MPOX and the collection of samples of them.
Posted in Dawn, March 8, 2025
