Sindh reported its first case of mpox on Saturday after a young man tested positive in Karachi, according to a statement from the provincial health ministry’s media coordinator.

Mpox cases have been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with two more patients testing positive on March 7. Both cases were admitted to the dermatology OPD at Khyber Teaching Hospital after doctors suspected them of having mpox symptoms, officials told Dawn.com.

Additionally, authorities stepped up screening and surveillance after detecting mpox in a woman in Bara tehsil of Khyber district last month. “It is the first case to be detected from the community,” officials told Dawn.com.

Meeran Yousuf, the media coordinator for the Sindh health ministry, said in a statement today that the case was confirmed in a 29-year-old resident of Malir with no recent travel history.

“His first symptom onset was on March 15, 2025,” she said. “The patient is currently in isolation at a public hospital and contact tracing is currently being conducted by the health department.”

Yousuf told Dawn.com that the Provincial Public Health Lab at Dow University’s Ojha campus confirmed the case. She added that the patient was undergoing treatment at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

Mpox is a significant health problem that is killing some of the most vulnerable people in the world, including children, and a form of it is possibly spreading in new ways and new parts of Africa.

The World Health Organisation declared mpox, previously known as monkeypox, an emergency of international concern on August 14, 2024.