The country’s first and only monkeypox patient has fully recovered and been discharged from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital, the health ministry said on Sunday.

“Best medical services were provided to the patient. Now there is no Monkeypox patient in Pakistan,” Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel was quoted as saying in a statement.

Monkeypox is a rare viral zoonotic disease that is caused by infection with the monkeypox virus. Although the natural reservoir of monkeypox remains unknown, African rodents and non-human primates like monkeys may harbour the virus and infect people.

Read: Karachi suspected monkeypox case ‘turns out’ to be chickenpox

The reports of the patient, who was admitted to PIMS to get medical treatment, were negative, it added.

The health minister appreciated the hospital staff for providing “extraordinary care” to the patient. The ministry claimed that it was vigilantly monitoring the situation while keeping all the relevant stakeholders on board for ensuring preparedness, timely response, and containment of mpox cases in Pakistan.

Patel went on to add that the Border Health Services already issued a monkeypox advisory to the health authorities to enhance screening of inbound passengers at all international airports on the recent case detection in the country.

“A total of 22 samples from suspected cases were referred from different parts of the country, and PCR tests were carried out for the monkeypox virus, however, no positive case was detected,” he said.

He claimed to have the situation completely under control as the government had chalked out a comprehensive strategy to handle the situation.

The government has advised all departments concerned to ensure surveillance through laboratory diagnostics, contact tracing, rapid identification of suspected cases and clusters of infections as well as the source of infection in order to provide optimal clinical care.