Monkeypox: Health Emergency declared at airports

KARACHI: A health emergency has been declared at Karachi and other operational airports of the country with regard to the Monkeypox virus disease, ARY News reported on Sunday.

The Airport Security Force (ASF) has issued standard operating procedure (SOPs) for protection from the infection.

All ASF staff will wear face masks under the SOPs. It will be mandatory for the staff under the SOPs to wear hand gloves during search of passengers and their baggage.

The ASF has also suspended issuance of temporary passes for entry in the airport.

A seven-year-old boy, who is a resident of Karachi’s Lyari was brought to National Institute of Child Health (NICH) with the monkeypox-like symptoms.

The child has been admitted to the monkeypox isolation ward in the hospital. The sources within the NICH said that there is no travel history of the suspected patient and said the symptoms are like those of mpox but the confirmation will come after the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) report.

Earlier, Sindh health minister Dr Azra Fazl Pechuho ruled out the detection of monkeypox cases in Karachi.

The rebuttal followed after it emerged that three cases of monkeypox had been reported in the Sindh capital.

The Sindh’s minister in her statement said no passenger has tested positive for mpox at the Jinnah International Airport (Karachi airport) and added that airport administration is not authorised to pass the information without confirmation.

Sindh health ministry is closely monitoring the situation and isolation wards have also been established at Jinnah and Chandka hospitals.