ISLAMABAD, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan recorded its 1st death from the monkeypox (mpox) disease after a 40-year-old man died during treatment in the capital Islamabad, an official said on Tuesday.

Head of infectious diseases at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital in Islamabad, Nasim Akhtar, said in a statement that the person, who was also infected by HIV, died on Sunday morning due to complications of mpox.

The official said seven people have so far tested positive for mpox in Pakistan and six out of them have recovered from the disease and another has died. The doctor added that all of the infected people came from abroad and that no case of local transmission of the disease has been detected in the South Asian country so far.

The World Health Organization (WHO) provided an experimental antiviral for the treatment of mpox to Pakistan but it "faced extreme difficulties in treating the patient because of the lack of antiviral medicines for the treatment of mpox."

Pakistan reported its 1st mpox cases in April this year when two persons tested positive for the infectious disease after they returned from Saudi Arabia.

The disease causes high fever, headache and rashes, with serious symptoms lasting for about two to four weeks.

Earlier this year, the WHO declared that mpox no longer represents a global health emergency due to a decline in new infection cases. Enditem

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