KARACHI: Two suspected cases of mpox (monkeypox) turned out to be negative in analysis carried out at the provincial reference lab at the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) on Saturday.

The suspected patients a nine-year-old girl and a 16-year-old boy had arrived at the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, from Jeddah, a day earlier.

Pakistan has reported three cases of mpox, two in Islamabad and one in Karachi, since a national alert has been declared at airports and other entry points over the viral infe ction last month.

Officials state that there is no evidence of localised transmission.

According to experts, mpox cases in Pakistan, suspected or otherwise, are generally originating from Saudi Arabia because people from around the world, including parts of central and west Africa where the disease has been re-emerging in recent years, arrive for religious pilgrimage, increasing risk for infection.

Mpox, they say, has low mortality risk and more than 90 per cent of survivors have no complications. However, the viral infection is highly contagious and can spread to anyone through close, personal, often skin-toskin contact. Even the last lesion can infect and contaminate.

According to the WHO, people can contract mpox from contaminated objects such as clothing or linens, through sharps injuries in health care, or in community setting such as tattoo parlours.