Pakistan has confirmed that the mpox case identified last week in a 34-year-old man who recently returned from a Gulf country is not a new strain.
Health officials announced the diagnosis on Friday and have completed testing to determine the strain involved.
The health ministry stated on Monday, clarifying, “The virus has been classified as Clade 2b.” They emphasized that the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) mainly involves Clade 1b. There have been no reported cases of Clade 1b in Pakistan.
Globally, mpox infections saw an increase in May 2022, predominantly affecting gay and bisexual men and were linked to the Clade 2b subclade. However, the number of cases has substantially declined since then.
The World Health Organization recently declared the spread of the new Clade 1b strain in Africa as a public health emergency of international concern, marking it the highest level of alert.
In related news, Sweden’s Public Health Agency reported its first diagnosis of the Clade 1b subclade outside Africa on Thursday.
Currently, the Democratic Republic of Congo remains the epicentre of the epidemic, with around 16,000 cases reported and 548 deaths to date.
