The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Health Department on Thursday placed all public and private hospitals on high alert for mpox following a notable rise in confirmed cases across the province.

Officials reported that more than two dozen, a total of 26, mpox infections have been detected in the last 12 months. Of these, 18 patients were men and six were women. An advisory emphasised the need for prompt isolation of suspected cases and rigorous testing to curb further spread.

The directive was issued in response to an uptick in referrals of suspected patients and an increase in laboratory-confirmed positives through the province’s surveillance and diagnostic systems. Health authorities noted that cases showed a marked rise in 2025 compared to the previous year, with additional detections continuing into early 2026.

Read More: K-P reports first locally transmitted case of mpox

Initially, mpox infections in the province were linked to travel from Gulf countries, where individuals tested positive upon arrival and were deported or managed accordingly. However, recent trends point to emerging local transmission within Pakistan.

Several cases are suspected to have originated from Punjab, which remained largely unaffected early on but reported over 25 cases late last year, a development that may have contributed to the surge in K-P.

The first locally acquired case, with no international travel history, was diagnosed in February 2025. In 2023, the province recorded only two cases, both imported from the Middle East.

Health officials expressed concern over the shifting epidemiological pattern, including the absence of travel history in many recent patients and challenges in tracing close contacts in several instances. This raises fears of potential community transmission and the risk of the zoonotic infection becoming more entrenched if containment efforts falter.

Doctors have been instructed to suspect mpox in patients presenting with characteristic symptoms such as specific skin rashes or lesions, fever, body aches, and swollen lymph nodes, especially those with known close contact to confirmed or suspected cases.

Also Read: Two more monkeypox cases reported in K-P

Hospitals are required to immediately isolate suspected individuals upon first contact and maintain strict infection prevention and control (IPC) measures until test results are available.

Globally, mpox continues to be reported in various regions, prompting ongoing recommendations from the World Health Organisation and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention for enhanced surveillance, early diagnosis, robust IPC protocols in healthcare settings, and rapid laboratory confirmation to limit transmission.

Provincial health authorities stressed that timely action remains critical to preventing wider outbreaks in the region.