KARACHI: Health authorities quarantined on Thursday four air travellers, including a teenager, suspected of having monkeypox (mpox) following their arrival at the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi.

Sources said the passengers — two of them hailing from Somalia and as many Pakistani deportees — had arrived in Karachi from Dubai on different flights.

They said the suspected patients had been quarantined at a government health facility in Bhittaiabad and their samples were sent to the Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, part of the Dow University of Health Sciences, for an analysis. The lab results would take one to two days to come, they said.

“Their chances of not having the disease are high, since none of them got the classic signs and symptoms of mpox. What raised the concern of the staff were blisters and pimples that were detected on physical examination,” a health department official said.

Passengers from high-risk countries were being screened and tested for mpox for the past two days, he added.

Two Somali nationals, as many Pakistani deportees arriving from Dubai are under observation

A rare disease caused by the monkeypox virus, mpox symptoms are similar to but milder than smallpox symptoms. The disease spreads when someone is in close contact with an infected animal and person. It is a droplet infection and enters the body through broken skin, the respiratory tract or through the eyes, nose or mouth, as well as through shared items such as bedding or towels.

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Early signs of monkeypox include flu-like symptoms such as fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, fatigue, trunk, lymphadenopathy and chickenpox-like rashes on the hands and face.

Call to enforce SoPs

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) has urged the government to implement measures for preventing an outbreak of mpox and immediately declare the cases after detection.

“The government should improve the facilities at airports, seaports and all border entries of the country in order to scan and monitor the passengers; especially those arriving from high-risk countries. It should immediately start rapid antigen tests for monkeypox at airports and at all other entry points of the country only for the passengers arriving from affected countries,” a PMA press release stated.

The association also called upon the government to strictly impose the same SOPs that had been imposed for Covid-19 and increase public awareness of the disease.

“Mpox is not as fatal as Covid-19 so people need not to panic. The rashes, before falling off, can be extremely itchy or painful but the infection usually clears up on its own and lasts between 14 and 21 days. But, people must follow preventive measures which largely constitute the Covid-19 precautions. They should avoid sharing their bedding or towels,” it said.

According to the WHO, since early May 2022, cases of mpox have been reported from countries where the disease is not endemic, and continue to be reported in several endemic countries.

Pakistan reported its first case of mpox in Islamabad recently, forcing authorities to put airports, seaports and health facilities on high alert.

An advisory issued by the Sindh Health Services Directorate General stated that the hospital administrations were required to establish a designated separate area with five to 10 rooms for isolation of monkeypox cases within 24 hours.

The area should include appropriate infection control measures, including negative pressure, hand hygiene facilities, and personal protective equipment to provide safe and effective care for patients.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2023