Four new polio cases reported in Pakistan, tally rises to 37 this year

Islamabad: Pakistan reported another four cases of poliovirus taking the national tally to 37 this year, a media report said on Saturday.

The regional reference laboratory for polio eradication at the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, on Friday, confirmed the detection of wild poliovirus type-1 (WPV 1) in three children from Balochistan and one child from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Dawn newspaper reported.

The children affected by the wild poliovirus include a girl from Pishin, two boys from Chaman and Noshki in Balochistan, and a girl from Lakki Marwat district of KP, according to an official of the regional reference laboratory for polio eradication.

Of the 37 cases detected from across Pakistan so far this year, the official said, 20 have been reported from Balochis­tan, 10 from Sindh, five from KP, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

“Genetic sequencing of the cases is underway,” he disclosed.

“These were the first polio cases from Noshki and Lakki Marwat this year,” he said, adding that both Chaman and Pishin had reported one poliovirus case each earlier as well.

Officials claimed that the fight against poliovirus in Balochistan and southern KP suffered throughout 2023 and early 2024, as immunisation campaigns were either staggered or postponed due to localised protests, insecurity and community boycotts, leaving a cohort of missed children who could sustain virus transmission.

Noshki is located on the border with Afghanistan and borders Quetta and Mastung districts where environmental samples have tested positive for WPV1 in recent months, indicating virus circulation, while Lakki Marwat has also reported multiple positive environmental samples recently.

A nationwide polio vaccination campaign will be launched on October 28 to vaccinate more than 45 million children under the age of five against paralytic polio, according to Dawn.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic, according to the World Health Organisation.