PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has directed Lakki Marwat authorities to take preventive measures after the detection of an mpox case in the district on Saturday.

The patient, a 33-year-old resident, was examined by Dr Mehran Khan, chairman of the dermatology department at the Khyber Teaching Hospital, on Nov 28 with symptoms, including high-grade fever, weakness and genital rashes, health officials told Dawn.

They added that samples from the patient, who had a history of travel to Dubai, were sent to the Public Health Reference Lab at the Khyber Medical University that confirmed mpox.

Officialssaid it was the sixth case reported in the province since late last year, with all five previous patients having fully recovered from the zoonotic infection.

They said the first suspected mpox case in the province, which was later confirmed by the PHRL, was also examined by Dr Mehran.

The officials said that the newly-confirmed patient workedas a driverin Dubaifor five years and landedat the Bacha Khan International Airport, Peshawar, on Nov 28. They said that the patient was sent to the hospital for examination where he emerged positive after necessary tests.

The officials said that the patient’s condition was improving.

The case prompted the health department to ask district health authorities in Lakki Marwat to take swift action to check spread of the disease.

Director (public health) at the directorate-general (health services) Dr Irshad Roghani has asked the public health coordinator to ensure preventive measures against mpox without delay, saying it is the only active case in the province at the moment, so there is a need to ensure protection of other residents from being infected with the disease. The health department also put hospitals and other health centres in the province on alert.

Dr Roghani told Dawn that enhanced airport surveillance and mpox screening led to the detection of the new case.

“We have directed health authorities in Lakki Marwat to ensure the latest patient’s close contacts, including relatives, undergo testing,” he said.

Dr Roghani said that most of the confirmed mpox cases from the province had the history of travelling to the Middle East.

He said that there was no cause of concern regarding mpox as measures were afoot to contain the infectious diseases caused by the monkeypox virus.

The director said that mpox was transmitted via respiratory droplets, prolonged close or direct contact with cutaneous lesions, and perhaps through contaminated fomites.

He said that the disease could be prevented primarily by avoiding direct contact with infected animals and patients, the use of face masks, and adherence to precautionary measures.

Dr Roghani also said that the PHRL had issued guidelines to hospitals for the prevention of mpox, which was transmitted from animals to human beings with an incubation period of 3-17 days after inoculation.

“It begins with a combination of fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. After initial symptoms, the patient develops a rash, often beginning on the face and then spreading to other parts of the body including palms and soles. The rash evolves from macules (flat lesions) to papules (raised lesions), vesicles (fluid-filled lesions), pustules (pus-filled lesions), and finally crusts. The lesions eventually fall off,” he said.

The director said that mpox was transmittable through direct contact with blood, bodily fluids or cutaneous or mucosal lesions of infected patients and indirect contact through contaminated materials such as bedding.

He added that the infection had no specific treatment and was “self-limiting.”

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2024