Four new mpox cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — and none had travelled abroad

Four new confirmed cases of mpox have been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, taking the province's total for 2026 to 18, according to the provincial health department.

The four patients — one woman and three men, two from Nowshera and one each from Peshawar and Mardan — include a married couple. None of the patients had a history of foreign travel, the health department said. Health workers are tracing the patients' contacts amid concerns about local transmission.

Samples sent by Khyber Teaching Hospital were confirmed at the Public Health Reference Laboratory at Khyber Medical University. The first mpox case in the province this year was recorded on 9 January. Of the 18 cases in the province this year, one person has died and 13 have recovered; four are currently active. Peshawar has the highest district count, with five cases.

Previously, mpox cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were mostly linked to international travel. Health workers say the absence of travel history in this cluster raises the likelihood of transmission within communities, but contact tracing is still under way — local transmission in this cluster is a concern being investigated, not a settled fact. Local transmission in the province is not new: Pakistan's first locally transmitted case was reported earlier in 2026, and genomic surveillance has found more than a third of confirmed cases in Pakistan were locally acquired or probably local.

All four patients have been advised to isolate at home to prevent further spread, according to The Express Tribune and Dawn.

Mpox is a viral illness that causes a skin rash or mucosal lesions lasting two to four weeks, along with fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes, according to the World Health Organization. It spreads through physical contact with someone who is infectious, with contaminated materials, or with infected animals. Laboratory confirmation is done by testing skin lesion material by PCR. People with mpox are advised to stay at home until all scabs fall off and a new layer of skin forms.

Verification note (29 October 2026): the provincial tally (18) and the home-isolation detail were re-checked on the day of publication against 28 October reports (The Express Tribune, Aaj). Dunya News's “hospital treatment” line was excluded as the lone dissenting report. “18” is the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa total only, not a Pakistan total, and no clade is attributed to this cluster.

General information only, not medical advice.