Poliovirus detected in 16 Pakistan districts as vaccine drive begins

Islamabad: Amid the alarming rise in polio cases, Pakistan's total tally this year rose to 41 after wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) was detected in a 42-month-old girl from Loralai District in Balochistan, Geo News reported citing The News.

Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) stated that the child experienced the onset of paralysis on October 8 and laboratory tests, on Friday, confirmed that she had contracted WPV1.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani government, in its bid to tackle the virus's spread, started a nationwide anti-polio vaccine campaign on October 28.

Polio­virus has been detec­ted in environmental samples collected from 16 districts.

The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradic­a­tion at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in sewage samples from 16 districts.

The samples were again collected from Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar, three districts of Karachi, Cha­man, Shaheed Benazir­abad, Badin, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Sujawal, Dadu, Kambar, Jacobabad and Dera Ghazi Khan.The latest case marks the first confirmed polio case in the Loralai district and highlights a troubling trend with the province emerging as an area of intense polio transmission this year, as reported by Geo News.

So far, the Balochistan province has reported 21 of the 41 cases, with other cases spread across Sindh (12), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (six), and one each in Punjab and Islamabad.

A senior official with the national PEI expressed concern over the extent of WPV1 transmission in the country.

"Balochistan's first case in Loralai adds to a disturbing picture [...] and we now have 204 positive environmental samples from 71 districts across Pakistan. The virus is circulating in many areas, with cases emerging undetected, which is alarming," Geo News quoted the official as saying.

Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan reported its 40th polio case of 2024, after a child from Kohat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa contracted Type-I of the poliovirus, ARY News reported citing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sources.