PESHAWAR
The Integrated Disease Surveillance & Response System (IDRS) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Health Department has issued an advisory to all District Health Officers (DHOs) and district hospitals to notify authorities if any case of Monkeypox is registered.
Health authorities have also been directed to taking preventive and control measures against the disease.
“The objective of this advisory is to alert public health authorities and other relevant stakeholders to undertake necessary steps for prevention and control of Monkeypox across KP,” stated health department advisory.
Health officials also have to report any person who comes in contact with a confirmed or suspected case to district public health coordinator or district disease surveillance, it directed.
According to the advisory, the provincial government would take several public health actions in the event of suspected cases reported from KP.
Health officials who suspect a Monkeypox case will immediately inform the head of the hospital after providing emergency treatment to the patient. Rescue 1122 has been tasked to provide ambulance services of ambulance to suspect cases.
Hospitals have been directed to reserve beds for isolating patients who test positive for the disease, it stated.
“The incubation period of monkeypox is usually from 7 to 14 days but can range from 5 to 21 days.
Most common signs and symptoms included rash, fever, chills and/or sweets, headache, backache, lymphadenopathy, sore throat and cough, coryza, prostration, and malaise,” the advisory said.
The health department said it was imperative to undertake effective preventive measures across the province.
It is pertinent to mention here that animal hosts of the Monkeypox. Rop squirrels, tree squirrels, Gambian pouched rats, dormice, non-human primates and other species.
Health department advisory said that the natural reservoir of Monkeypox has not yet been identified, though rodents are the most likely.
“Uncertainty remains on the natural history of Monkeypox and various studies underway to understand the epidemiology, sources of infection, and transmission patterns,” the advisory noted.
It is worth mentioning here that Pakistan has not detected a single case of the Monkeypox.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in its latest statement has also clarified that no case of Monkeypox has been diagnosed in Pakistan.
However, the KP health department has decided to monitor closely the overall situation and issued an advisory to government hospitals over Monkeypox, said a health official.
