Pakistan has its first case of monkeypox.

The first case of monkeypox in Pakistan was found in a person who came from outside the country, the Ministry of National Health Services Regulations and Coordination said Tuesday.

Officials from the health ministry told Geo News that the person was sent back to Pakistan from Saudi Arabia on April 17 because they had signs of monkeypox.

The person’s samples were then sent to the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad. The person’s name has been kept secret, but the facility confirmed a day earlier that he was carrying the virus.

The officials also said that the person lives in either Rawalpindi or Islamabad. His family members are now being checked out and asked to stay in lockdown to stop the virus from spreading. The government has also started to look for contracts.

They said that after the virus was found, airports all over the country were put on high watch and that samples of suspected patients were sent to the NIH.

Mpox, also called “monkeypox,” is a disease caused by the monkeypox virus, which is a species of the Orthopoxvirus family. Two different clades exist — clade I and clade II.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that the most common symptoms of monkeypox or mpox are a skin rash or mucosal lesions that can last 2–4 weeks and are followed by fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy, and swollen lymph nodes.

People can get mumps by coming in contact with someone who has it, touching something that has it, or being around sick animals.

Supportive care is used to treat the disease. Some vaccines and treatments for smallpox that have been cleared for use in some countries can also be used for mpox.

Since May 2022, more than 78,000 people around the world have been infected with monkeypox.