ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: Pakistani health authorities confirmed a third mpox case in the country on Saturday, saying the patient, a resident of Peshawar, was diagnosed after the airport screening process following his return from another country.
Mpox causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. The World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries around the world to take precautionary measures after declaring the disease a public health emergency on August 14, as a new offshoot of the virus, first identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo, began spreading to other neighboring states.
Pakistan also announced precautionary measures against the disease, putting airports and border entry points on alert and calling for strict monitoring to prevent the spread of the virus.
The government confirmed two mpox cases in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in recent weeks, saying these individuals had a travel history and emphasizing that there had been no reports of local transmission.
“Yesterday, two suspected cases of M-pox at Peshawar Airport were isolated by the Border Health Services staff,” the health ministry said in a statement. “Samples were sent to the Peshawar Reference Public Laboratory at Khyber Medical University for diagnosis. One of the two samples tested positive. The affected individual is from Peshawar.”
The ministry informed contact tracing and screening of the affected person were being conducted, adding that the patient’s travel history includes Gulf countries.
“Following the recent emergency, the number of M-pox cases in Pakistan has reached three,” the statement added.
The spokesperson for the Public Health Department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Atta Ullah Khan, said the patient was 51-year-old who was traveling abroad before returning to his country.
Khan said the patient arrived at the Peshawar Airport on Thursday where the medical team identified the symptoms.
“The Rapid Response Team took wound swabs from the patient at the Police Hospital and sent them to the laboratory and the results of the test returned from the National Institute of Health on Friday late night,” he told Arab News.
He informed the infected individual was subsequently transferred to the Police Services Hospital, where a six-bed ward has been allocated specifically for mpox patients.
Reacting to the development, Prime Minister’s Coordinator for Health Dr. Mukhtar Bhart said Pakistan had formulated an effective strategy for the prevention of mpox.
“Border Health Services staff at all airports are working diligently,” he maintained. “Pakistan’s surveillance system for monitoring diseases is strong worldwide.”
He noted the federal and provincial administrations were jointly ensuring effective measures for the prevention of the disease.
Bhart also said the ministry of health and its subordinate institutions were actively engaged in ensuring all preventive measures.
Pakistan confirms third mpox case in Peshawar resident after airport screening
https://arab.news/256gr
Pakistan confirms third mpox case in Peshawar resident after airport screening
- Medical team at Peshawar airport identified mpox symptoms in the 51-year-old patient before running the tests
- Health ministry says contact tracing is in progress as the patient has been moved to the Police Services Hospital
Security forces kill four militants in Pakistan’s volatile southwest, military says
- Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by land area bordering Iran and Afghanistan, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency
- The Balochistan government has recently established a threat assessment center to strengthen early warning, prevent ‘terrorism’ incidents
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces gunned down four militants in an intelligence-based operation in the southwestern Balochistan province, the military said on Tuesday.
The operation was conducted in Balochistan’s Kalat district on reports about the presence of militants, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.
The “Indian-sponsored militants” were killed in an exchange of fire during the operation, while weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the deceased, who remained actively involved in numerous militant activities.
“Sanitization operations are being conducted to eliminate any other Indian-sponsored terrorist found in the area,” the ISPR said in a statement.
There was no immediate response from New Delhi to the statement.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by land area bordering Iran and Afghanistan, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency involving Baloch separatist groups, including the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF).
Pakistan accuses India of supporting these separatist militant groups and describes them as “Fitna Al-Hindustan.” New Delhi denies the allegation.
The government in Balochistan has also established a state-of-the-art threat assessment center to strengthen early warning and prevention against “terrorism” incidents, a senior official said this week.
“Information that was once scattered is now shared and acted upon in time, allowing the state to move from reacting after incidents to preventing them before they occur,” Balochistan Additional Chief Secretary Hamza Shafqaat wrote on X.
The development follows a steep rise in militancy-related deaths in Pakistan in 2025. According to statistics released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) last month, combat-related deaths in 2025 rose 73 percent to 3,387.
These included 2,115 militants, 664 security forces personnel, 580 civilians and 28 members of pro-government peace committees, the think tank said.
