LAHORE – Health authorities in Punjab’s capital on Sunday said they wereinvestigating two suspected cases of monkeypoxlinkthe metropolis, likely adding the Punjab region to the list that isreporting recent infections of the contagious virus.
Both the suspected patients have developed symptoms of monkeypoxlinkare under isolation and treatment. One of the patients also suffered fromskin rash and enlarged blisters.
The suspected patients will undergo a PCR test for confirmation of thevirus, while close contacts of both patients will be traced to curb thespread.
The current outbreak has raised alarms in South Asian nation and promptedofficials to beef up their surveillance efforts, as the recent diagnosisindicates that the monkeypox virus has been spreading undetected.
Authorities are closely monitoring the situation and isolation wards havealso been established at several government hospitals.
The virus that causes monkeypox is mainly spread from animals to people andit is a member of the ‘Poxvirus’ family of viruses, which has 83 virusspecies in all and is further subdivided into 2 subfamilies with 22 specieseach.
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Smallpox, one of the viruses in the aforementioned family, is also referredto as its cousin due to the similarity of the symptoms between it andmonkeypox.
It should be noted that although the World Health Organisation now refersto the disease as “Mpox,” it is still commonly known as “monkeypox.”
In 1958, a smallpox-like illness spread among groups of monkeys used forstudy, leading to the discovery of monkeypox.
The monkeypox virus comes in two varieties: Central African and WestAfrican. Compared to the West African monkeypox virus, the Central Africanmonkeypox virus results in more severe illnesses and fatalities.
