Mpox may enter Nepal, but still no need to be panic: Dr Pun

Kirtipur (Kathmandu), Aug 31: Public health expert Dr Sher Bahadr Pun has cautioned towards potential entry of communicable diseases anywhere in the country through the means of travel.     

Taking part in a health-related programme in Kathmandu today, Dr Pun said Mpox (monkey pox) presently spread in Africa and the European countries may arrive in Nepal."There is no situation to be confident that we are totally and will be untouched by the pandemic."     

He also said that medical experiences to date say that Mpox is not as deadly as COVID-19. In medical assessment, it is an infection on the skin like chicken pox.     

Mpox, the viral infection that was first detected among monkeys in 1958, was first diagnosed in a nine-year-old boy in Congo in 1970. So far it has spread in 40 countries in the world. ---