Two more polio cases take year’s tally to 67
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported two more polio cases on Thursday, taking the number of cases so far this year to 67.
An official of the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health confirmed two cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) from Tank and Kashmore.
This is the fourth polio case from Tank and second from Kashmore this year.
Pakistan has seen a resurgence of WPV1 this year, with 67 cases reported so far. Of these, 27 were from Balochistan, 19 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
The new cases were confirmed two days after a child from Balochistan’s Qila Abdullah district was crippled by the disease.
Apart from the 67 reported cases, the presence of poliovirus has been detected in environmental samples collected from more than 80 districts.
A vaccination drive was held in three provinces earlier this month. The drive was put off in Balochistan till Dec 30.
Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2024