PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has detected a new mpox case in the provincial capital, taking the total number of patients infected with zoonotic ailment in the province this year to six.

The patient, a 35-year-old woman, was diagnosed positive for the disease at Public Health Reference Laboratory, Khyber Medical University, on Monday.

Her husband, 42, was diagnosed positive for mpox on March 4 at the dermatology OPD of Khyber Teaching Hospital. He was checked by the chairman of dermatology department of KTH, Dr Mehran Khan.

He was quarantined at home but his wife turned at the OPD where the same dermatologist referred her for a test and she emerged positive.

Experts told Dawn that the woman had no symptoms at the time when her husband tested positive. They said that she developed symptoms later and probably she had contracted the virus from her husband before being quarantined.

KP has registered 15 cases of the ailment during three years

“It is also possible that the woman has taken precautionary measures due to which she has been infected by the disease. Now, her husband is negative for the ailment,” they said.

Experts said that three cases of mpox were diagnosed at KTH in the current month. They said that positive cases needed to be isolated in homes or hospitals where they should stay away from other people. The patients, once diagnosed positive, should remain in quarantine till their full recovery through test after which they could be allowed to meet people, they added.

“Now, health department has taken strict notice of the patient and she has been asked to stay away from people inside their homes. Otherwise, the disease can be transmitted to others,” they said. They added that the trend was dangerous and the disease could spread in the community if patients continued to violate the advice of doctors regarding isolation.

Officials said the directorate of public health at the directorate-general health services started screening of close contacts of patients to find if the infection had been transmitted to others.

The province has recorded 15 mpox cases so far, including six in 2025, seven in 2024 and two in 2023. Most of the patients had arrived either from United Arab Emirate or Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where the disease was endemic.

Authorities have been screening the passengers arriving from UAE and KSA at Bacha Khan International Airport and the suspected ones are being sent to isolation ward at Service Hospital where special arrangements have been put in place for the purpose.

“We send samples of patients to the laboratory for test and patients are released from hospital in case they emerge negative while the positive ones are isolated,” officials said.

They said that so far, all patients had the infection, which could be traced to UAE or KSA. The latest case is infected locally, from his husband. Other patients were infected from sources abroad and had nothing to do with local infection.

“As per protocol, all patients are isolated and released only when their tests emerge negative,” they said.

Officials said that there was a lot of awareness among people as they kept distance from patients due to which the chances of local spread of the infection were zero.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2025