Pakistan has recorded its second case of the mpox virus (previously known as monkeypox), a health official announced on Friday.

Dr Malik Mukhtar Ahmad, the prime minister’s coordinator for health, stated that the new case was detected at the Peshawar airport. The patient had recently arrived from a Gulf country.

“A second case of mpox has been reported in Pakistan, which has come from a Gulf country,” Dr Mukhtar was quoted as saying by PTV News. He added that the patient was immediately shifted to a hospital by the health desk at the Peshawar airport.

The development comes a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the recent global outbreak of the disease as a public health emergency of international concern. The WHO noted that the new Clade 1b variant of the virus is spreading more easily through routine close contact.

The health agency has emphasised that the mpox outbreak “is not on the same scale as the Covid-19 pandemic,” as much is already known about the virus and the means to control it.

Earlier this week, Pakistan’s health ministry clarified that the country’s first mpox case belonged to the Clade 2 variety, and no Clade 1b infections have been reported so far.

“An effective system of screening and surveillance system was functional at all airports,” Dr Ahmed said and added that border health staff were working diligently at airports and entry points.

Dr Ahmad said that the government was ensuring serious measures to keep people safe from epidemics.

According to a health ministry spokesperson, the ministry was ensuring continuous monitoring of the situation.

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The staff of Border Health Services were engaged at airports and entry points for scrutiny of suspected cases and to ensure “serious steps to keep the public safe from epidemics”, Dr Ahmed said.

Dr Naseem Akhtar, the focal person at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), had said on Monday that a 47-year-old traveller from the Middle East was referred by the airport authorities to Pims on suspicion of being infected with mpox.

The individual was working as a labourer in the Middle East and was a resident of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Akhtar had said.