Pakistan declared mpox-free as only patient successfully recovers: NHS

ISLAMABAD (Monitoring Desk): Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel declared the country free of mpox on Sunday after the only patient afflicted with the disease successfully recovered.

In a statement issued today, Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) spokesperson Sajid Shah said one mpox case was reported so far in the country, adding that the patient was under treatment at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).

Patel said the best medical facilities were provided to the patient who had now recovered.

“The patient has been discharged after testing negative [for the virus]. There are no cases of mpox in Pakistan. Kudos to the hospital staff for taking the best measures,” he said.

He said the government was ensuring all necessary measures to keep people safe from diseases and the country’s institutions were “always ready to deal with all kinds of epidemics and diseases”.

Patel said samples of 22 suspected mpox cases were sent for testing and all of them had turned out negative.

“The situation regarding mpox is under complete control,” the health minister said, adding that a well-integrated strategy was formulated to deal with the disease and the implementation of recommendations by health regulatory authorities was being ensured at all airports and entry and exit points.

It is worth mentioning that after media reports, a controversy began about whether there were one or two confirmed mpox cases in the country. The uncertainty further increased when NHS Parliamentary Secretary Dr Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro said that there were two confirmed mpox patients while speaking on the National Assembly floor on April 27.

The mpox-positive person had arrived in Islamabad from Saudi Arabia on April 17 and went to Pims to get himself tested.

Pims Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases Dr Naeem Akhtar had identified that the patient could be suffering from mpox and admitted him to the isolation ward.

Later, it emerged that the patient had mpox and another traveller on board the same flight as him was also reportedly found positive for the disease.

A senior doctor of Pims, requesting anonymity, had said that the patient had cleared the immigration counter and came out of the airport without being identified as a potential mpox patient.

“Next day the patient came to Pims for a check-up … it shows that he might be deported because of mpox,” the doctor had said, adding that the patient had claimed to spend at least 20 years in Jeddah working as a driver.

Mpox — which spreads via close contact and tends to cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions — was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in July 2022. The organisation maintained its alert in November.

In November, the WHO named the disease mpox to replace the older term monkeypox, citing concerns of stigma and racism associated with the name.