Quetta, June 8: In yet another alarming development for Pakistan, a new case of polio has been reported in the country, bringing the total number of cases to five in 2024.
ARY News citing sources said the latest case is of a two-year-old child from Quetta, Balochistan, who tested positive for wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1).
The National Institute of Health in Islamabad has confirmed the fifth polio case reported in Pakistan this year.
Of the earlier cases, one was reported from Sindh while three cases were reported from Balochistan.
In 2023, the country reported six polio cases, with four from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two from Karachi.
Polio is a highly infectious disease that can cause paralysis, disability, and even death. Pakistan has been working to vaccinate millions of children under the age of five to prevent the spread of the disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been working with Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only two countries where polio is still endemic, to implement a synchronized polio vaccination campaign
Meanwhile, Pakistan has reported another environmental sample of Poliovirus in the Lasbela district of Balochistan, taking the positive environmental samples’ tally for the current year to 173.
Prior to this, Balochistan had reported two more findings of the virus in the districts of Dukki, and Killa Saifullah.
An anonymous official of the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme told media agencies that the National Institute of Health Islamabad has confirmed the detection of Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) from Lasbela district.
Elaborating on this, he said “The sample was collected from Jamali Mohallah environmental site. It is the third positive sample from Lasbela district this year. The previous two positive samples were collected on Jan 23 and April 22. The isolated virus is classified as YB3A cluster and 99.44pc genetically linked to the virus detected in an environmental sample in Karachi East on Jan 11 this year.”
