Pakistan’s health ministry has confirmed at least one case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country, it said on Friday, as provincial health authorities reported they had detected at least three cases.

A health ministry spokesperson said the sequencing of the confirmed case was underway, and that it would not be clear which variant of mpox the patient had until the process was complete, Reuters reported.

A new form of the virus has triggered global concern because it seems to spread more easily though routine close contact. A case of the new variant was confirmed on Thursday in Sweden and linked to a growing outbreak in Africa, the first sign of its spread outside the continent.

However, the World Health Organization has advised against any travel restrictions to stop the spread of mpox.

Earlier on Friday, the health department in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said three cases had been detected in patients on arrival from the United Arab Emirates. It was not clear whether the patient confirmed by the central health ministry was among the three.

A health officer in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mardan district said separately the location of a confirmed mpox patient, a man who had recently returned from Saudi Arabia, was unknown.

He had initially received tests and advice at a hospital in the provincial capital Peshawar, Dr Javed Iqbal told Reuters, but later returned to his home a few hours away in Mardan and then went to another district.

“When we visited his home in Mardan, it was locked from outside and his neighbours told us that the family has left for Dir,” said the DHO Mardan.

“We approached our fellow colleagues of the health department in Dir district, but they couldn’t trace him even in Dir.”

The national health ministry said it was carrying out contact tracing of the patient it had identified, who they said was from Mardan. They were also boosting airport surveillance and monitoring with extra health personnel, the ministry said in a statement.

The WHO declared the recent outbreak of the disease as a public health emergency of international concern after the new variant of the virus was identified.

Health ministry spokesman Sajid Shah said so far they had no confirmation of the new variant, but the sequencing of the sample of the confirmed patient was underway.

“Once that’s done, we will be able to say what strain is this,” said Shah.

Salim Khan, the director general of health services for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said three patients were in quarantine.

Global health officials on Thursday confirmed an infection with a new strain of the mpox virus in Sweden and linked it to a growing outbreak in Africa, the first sign of its spread outside the continent.

The WHO on Wednesday sounded its highest level of alert over the outbreak in Africa after cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo spread to nearby countries.

There have been 27,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, mainly among children, in Congo since the current outbreak began in January 2023.

The disease, caused by the monkeypox virus, leads to flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions. It is usually mild but can kill, with children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, all at higher risk of complications.