PAKISTAN became the second country to announce today that it has identified cases of Mpox, as a suspected variant of the virus spread out from Africa.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday declared that the spread of Mpox was a global health emergency over concerns that a new form of the virus seems to spread more easily through routine close contact.

Hours later, a new case of the variant was confirmed in Sweden.

Pakistan’s Health Ministry confirmed at least one case in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country, with provincial health authorities reported they had detected at least three cases.

The ministry said that sequencing is being done to determine whether it is a new variant and that the man was from Mardan, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan.

It said officials at border crossing points and airports have been directed to ensure strict surveillance and collect samples for medical tests if they see symptoms of the disease in any passenger returning from abroad.

On Wednesday, the WHO said there have been more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths in Africa this year, already exceeding last year’s figures.

More than 96 per cent of all cases and deaths have been in Congo.

The director of public health for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Dr Irshad Roghani, said the person infected with Mpox in Pakistan has mild symptoms.

“Contact tracing of the affected person has been started and samples of more people are being obtained,” he told The Associated Press.

Dr Roghani said that since 2022, 300 people have been tested in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, of whom two tested positive last year.

This is the first case detected this year.