Pakistan reports two new polio cases; tally rises to 39 this year

A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child at a neighbourhood of Peshawar, Pakistan. File
| Photo Credit: AP

“Pakistan has reported 39 polio cases this year, with two fresh cases of the crippling disease being detected in the Sindh province,” authorities said on Sunday (October 20, 2024.)

“The latest cases were confirmed on Saturday (October 19, 2024) in the Sanghar and Mirpurkhas districts of the province,” the Dawn newspaper reported.

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These come after four cases were reported a day earlier, jolting the country’s efforts to eradicate the poliovirus. According to the Regi­o­nal Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication in Islamabad, the newest victims are a girl and a boy.

“These are the first polio cases from Mirpur­khas and Sanghar this year,” the report quoted an official as saying. “The prevalence of the virus had already been confirmed in the two neighbouring districts following multiple environmental samples testing positive for WPV1 since April,” the official added.

In ten months of the year, Pakistan has reported 39 cases of poliovirus, of which 20 were reported from Bal­o­c­h­istan, 12 from Sindh, five from Khyber Pakhtun­khwa and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication Ayesha Raza Farooq acknowledged the spread of the virus across the country but noted that a strategy has been developed to eradicate the crippling disease by June 2025.

“The Pakistan Polio Programme has planned a new nationwide vaccination campaign from October 28 to immunise more than 45 million children under the age of five,” the report said.

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