Authorities 'ensuring mpox screening' at Karachi airport amid spread risk

KARACHI: The authorities are ensuring the mpox screening at Karachi's Jinnah International Airport, a spokesperson of the Pakistan Airports Authority said Friday, as the risk of disease spread rises amid multiple global warnings. 

The health ministry has confirmed at least one case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country. 

As the threat of international spread of the virus looms after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox a global public health emergency, its highest form of alert, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has spread to neighbouring countries.

The PAA spox said that the airport administration is ensuring the directives of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) regarding the preventive measures and screening tests at the Karachi Airport. 

The airport manager, Sindh Health deirctor general and the director of airport health services visited Jinnah International Airport and expressed satisfaction over the screening arrangments, he said. 

The spokesperson further stated that the passengers from international flights are being screened at the arrival and if a person is found to be infected, they will be moved to the isolation room established by the border health services.

Suspected patients' travel history and symptoms details are reviewed in the isolation rooms and samples are sent for PCR testing without further ado, the PAA spokesperson stated.

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Friday raised its risk level assessment for mpox to "moderate" from "low" for sporadic cases appearing in the bloc and asked countries to maintain high levels of awareness among travellers visiting from affected areas.

"Due to the close links between Europe and Africa, we must be prepared for more imported clade I cases," its director Pamela Rendi Wagner said.

— With additional input from Reuters