KARACHI: A suspected patient of the monkeypox virus admitted to a hospital in the metropolis a day earlier was found to have scabies, officials said on Sunday.

“He has been discharged after his test came negative today,” shared a senior doctor at the Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital and Research Centre where the patient was admitted a day earlier.

His symptoms and medical history suggested that he had scabies, he added.

The patient, a 32-year-old man, had arrived from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday at the Jinnah International Airport where he was examined under the provincial disease surveillance system.

The patient had rashes and raised red lesions on the skin. His samples were sent to the Dow University of Health Sciences for analysis, and the result came on Sunday.

So far, not a single confirmed case of mpox has been reported in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2024