Islamabad, Nov 15 (UNI) Pakistan has recorded yet another case of polio, taking the number of cases to 49 so far this year.
The latest case was detected in the Jaffarabad district of Balochistan province, marking the district’s first confirmed polio case and highlighting the ongoing spread of the virus across the country.
According to an official of the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health, a 15-month old male was diagnosed with wild poliovirus (WPV1), according to Dawn.
“Genetic sequencing of the virus isolated from the child’s samples shows that it is genetically linked to WPV1 detected in Pishin in April 2024.
“This is the first polio case reported from Jaffarabad which shares a border with Nasirabad and Jhal Magsi districts in Balochistan and Jacobabad and Qambar districts in Sindh, all of which have reported WPV1 in sewage samples or human cases in recent months, indicating wider circulation of the virus,“ he said.
This connection seemingly indicates active transmission within the province, which has reported 24 cases to date, making it the hardest-hit area in the country, accounting for nearly half of the reported polio cases.
Aside from Balochistan, infections have also been reported in Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Ghotki in Sindh, both of which recorded their first cases of the year just last week.
Apart from Afghanistan, Pakistan remains one of only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus transmission has not been eradicated.
Though health officials are urging parents to participate actively in polio vaccination campaigns regularly conducted by the government, the efforts have borne little success.
The failure and the resultant lack of the ongoing spread is attributed to various challenges, including insecurity, misinformation, religious extremism, lack of awareness, and community resistance, all of which hinder vaccination efforts.
