ISLAMABAD: The federal health minister has claimed that Pakistan was free of monkeypox disease as the only patient who tested positive for the virus has recovered.

“Alhamdulillah currently there is no patient of mpox in Pakistan as the only confirmed patient has been discharged from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad after fully recovering,” Minister for National Health Services Abdul Qadir Patel said on Sunday.

The minister appreciated the Pims staff “which used all possible means to stop the virus from spreading and eradicated chances of localised transmission”.

Speaking to Dawn, the health ministry’s spoke­sperson, Sajid Shah said that overall 22 samples of suspected patients were sent to the National Institute of Health and all of them were found negative.

The lone patient, a 41-year-old man, arrived in Islamabad from Saudi Arabia on April 17.

A senior Pims doctor said the patient had cleared the immigration counter and came out of the airport without being identified as a potential mpox carrier.

The doctor added that the patient came to Pims by himself for a check-up the next day.

“We asked the patient about his profession and duration of stay in Saudi Arabia and he told us that he was working as a driver in Jeddah for the last two decades.”

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2023