The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) orders all foreign airlines operating in Pakistan on Sunday to implement preventive measures against the monkeypox virus at the airports.
The first case of monkeypox in Pakistan was reported earlier this week in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
A newly discovered strain of the monkeypox has caused alarm worldwide due to its apparent ease of transmission through frequent close contact.
The new variant’s first indication of spreading outside of Africa was a case that was verified in Sweden on August 15 and connected to an expanding outbreak across the continent.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health officials withdrew their earlier assertion that three mpox patients had been found there this week upon arriving from the United Arab Emirates and announced on Friday that one mpox case had been verified in the province.
According to the KP health officials, one instance is related to the new strain of the virus that has spread around the world, while two of the three cases of mpox that have been previously recorded were individuals who got the illness last year, according to media reports.
In the meanwhile, the PCAA issued a set of guidelines directing all foreign airlines to give masks to their customers. “Whereas, it has been made compulsory for staff of the airlines and the ground service as well to wear masks,” added the statement.
The authorities directed airlines to make sure that passengers’ and employees’ hands were cleaned, and that their luggage was likewise sanitized.
It directed that the travelers exhibiting signs of monkeypox be segregated.
The whereabouts of the confirmed mpox patient, a guy who the officer stated had just returned from Saudi Arabia, was unknown, according to a health official in KP’s Mardan district.
Dr. Javed Iqbal told Reuters that he had first been examined and given counsel in a hospital in Peshawar, but that he had thereafter gone back to his Mardan home a few hours away and then to another area.
