PESHAWAR: Authorities have detected four new Mpox cases, including a couple, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, revealing that none of them has a history of foreign travel.
As health experts fear the risk of the local transmission of the virus, the health department has planned contact tracing and testing of the close relatives of the infected people, say officials.
They said the Public Health Reference Laboratory at the Khyber Medical University, which tested samples for infectious diseases, received samples from suspected patients referred by the Khyber Teaching Hospital last week. They tested positive for Mpox on Saturday.
Officials said one woman and three men were sent home to remain in isolation.
Contact tracing, testing planned amid fears of virus’s local transmission
They said two patients belonged to Nowshera, while the other two were from Peshawar and Mardan.
According to a report prepared by the health department’s Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response System, the latest case detections have taken the province’s Mpox tally for the current year to 18. Of them, one lost his life, while 13 patients were recovered.
Doctors called the situation alarming in light of the possibility of community transmission.
Until now this year, the province has reported two Mpox cases in Swabi in Jan; four in Feb, including two in Buner and one each in Abbottabad and Lower Chitral; one in Peshawar in March; one in Karak in April; one in Upper Chitral in July; one in Mardan in Aug, and four in Sept, including three in Peshawar and one in Upper Dir.
Doctors fear outbreaks and call for wider infection prevention measures along with the establishment of isolation rooms in hospitals to help prevent the spread of the disease.
Health officials said the department had already issued guidelines to hospitals, especially those in affected districts, asking them to collect samples from suspected Mpox patients for laboratory confirmation to ensure strict surveillance through timely diagnosis.
They said Mpox cases reported in the province previously were mainly linked to international travel, with patients contracting the infection abroad before entering the country.
Officials said the province recorded its first Mpox case in 2023 when a resident working as a driver in Saudi Arabia tested positive for the disease after landing at the airport.
Health experts called stronger preventive measures to contain possible local transmission of the disease.
“We need to strengthen infection control measures and ensure that the reuse of syringes is stopped. More infections could be detected if screening is carried out in areas from where the latest cases have been reported,” an expert told Dawn.
Dermatologists noted that the World Health Organisation declared Mpox a public health emergency of international concern on Aug 14, 2024, following an upsurge in cases amid the continuing threat posed by the infection.
Prof Mehran Khan, associate professor and chairman of the dermatology department at Khyber Teaching Hospital, said the disease typically began with fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion.
He said the rash evolved from macules (flat lesions) to papules (raised lesions), vesicles (fluid-filled lesions), pustules (pus-filled lesions) and finally crusts, while the lesions eventually fell off.
“Mpox is transmittable through direct contact with blood, bodily fluids or cutaneous or mucosal lesions of infected patients and indirect contact through contaminated materials such as bedding,” he said.
Doctors said the risk of infection could be reduced by preventing direct contact with affected people, wearing face masks and taking recommended precautionary steps.
They also said in Pakistan, only Clade-I variant of Mpox virus was prevalent but it wasn’t threatening like Clade-II whose presence had so far not been reported in the country.
Doctors said the province had recorded one death among Mpox patients though the deceased might have been a “co-morbid” Mpox patient.
Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2026
