ISLAMABAD, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Health officials and hospitals have been directed to closely monitor the situation of monkeypox (mpox) in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province after the fifth case of the infectious disease was detected in the country, a health official said on Sunday.
The latest patient is a resident of Mardan district of the northwestern province who recently came back from Saudi Arabia, and visited a hospital in Peshawar after showing symptoms of the disease, Musaddiq Khan, district coordinator of public health of the district, told Xinhua.
The patient, a 40-year-old man who was already HIV-AIDS positive, had been shifted to Islamabad's Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences after he was diagnosed with mpox, and his condition is stable, Khan said.
The patient did not contact many people after landing in Pakistan, and he visited the hospital in Peshawar on suspicion of mpox, Khan said.
All the five cases found in Pakistan had either lived or traveled abroad, and there have not been any traces of the spread of the disease in the South Asian country yet.
Irshad Ali Roghani, director of public health at the province's directorate-general health services, told the media that blood samples of 11 contacts of the patient were checked and they all tested negative for the disease.
He added that the health department has directed all hospitals in the province to be vigilant and if symptoms of the disease are found in anyone especially those with a history of traveling abroad, the screening and testing should be ensured in a timely manner.
The official said the health department has also formally sought the consent of the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan for the import of medicines to treat the disease as they are not available in Pakistan and it needs to seek the World Health Organization's help to provide medicine to the affected people.
Monkeypox is an infectious disease caused by the monkeypox virus. The virus can be transmitted to humans through physical contact with someone who is infectious, with contaminated materials, or with infected animals. ■