Last two monkeypox patients in Pakistan recover from virus

ISLAMABAD: The last two patients of monkeypox in Pakistan have recovered from the virus putting the current number of active cases to zero. 

Till now there were two positive cases of monkeypox in Islamabad. However, a spokesperson of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) shared that both patients have recovered from the disease.

According to the spokesperson, both patients have also been discharged from the hospital.

On the other hand, a spokesperson of the health ministry shared that, so far, Pakistan has registered five monkeypox cases and all of them have recovered.

Pakistan detected its first two cases of monkeypox in people who travelled to the country from abroad in April.

Health ministry officials had told Geo News back then, that a person was deported from Saudi Arabia and landed in Pakistan on April 17 with symptoms of monkeypox. Meanwhile, another person sitting with him on the flight also exhibited symptoms of the mpox (monkeypox).

The samples of the people, whose identities were kept confidential and sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad. The facility then confirmed that they were carriers of the infectious virus.

Mpox is a viral illness caused by the monkeypox virus, a species of the genus Orthopoxvirus. Two different clades exist — clade I and clade II.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the common symptoms of monkeypox or mpox are a skin rash or mucosal lesions which can last 2–4 weeks and are accompanied by fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy, swollen lymph nodes.

Mpox can be transmitted to humans through physical contact with someone who is infectious, with contaminated materials, or with infected animals.

The disease is treated with supportive care. Vaccines and therapeutics developed for smallpox and approved for use in some countries can be used for mpox in some circumstances.

Since May 2022, a global outbreak of human monkeypox infections has been reported in over 78,000 people.