PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department has detected a new mpox case in the provincial capital, taking the total number of patients infected with zoonotic ailment in the province this year to six.

The patient, a 35-year-old woman, was diagnosed positive for the disease at Public Health Reference Laboratory, Khyber Medical University, on Monday.

Her husband, 42, was diagnosed positive for mpox on March 4 at the dermatology OPD of Khyber Teaching Hospital. He was checked by the chairman of dermatology department of KTH, Dr Mehran Khan. He was quarantined at home but his wife turned at the OPD where the same dermatologist referred her for test and she emerged positive.

Experts told Dawn that the woman had no symptoms at the time when her husband was tested positive. They said that she developed symptoms later and probably she had contacted the virus from husband before being quarantined.

`It is also possible that the woman has taken precautionary measures due to which she has been infected by the disease. Now, her husband is negative for the ailment,` they said.

Experts said that three cases of mpox were diagnosed at KTH in the current month. They said that positive cases needed to be isolated in homes or hospitals where they should stay away from other people. The patients, once diagnosed positive, should remain in quarantine till their full recovery through test after which they could be allowed to meet people, they added.

`Now, health department has taken strict notice of the patient and she has been asked to stay away from people inside their homes.

Otherwise, the disease can be transmitted to others,` they said. They added that the trend was dangerous and the disease could spread in the community if patients continued to violate the advice of doctors regarding isolation.

Officials said the directorate of public health at the directorate-general health services started screening of close contacts of patients to find if the infection had been transmitted to others.

The province has recorded 15 mpox cases so far, including six in 2025, seven in 2024 and two in 2023. Most of the patients had arrived either from United Arab Emirate or Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where the disease was endemic.