KARACHI: Two more cases of poliovirus have been reported from Balo­chistan and Sindh, taking the total number of cases surfacing this week to three.

Eight cases have been reported since the start of January, two more than the six reported in all of 2023.

According to the Regi­onal Reference Labo­ra­tory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health, the new cases have been reported from Blaochistan’s Qila Abdullah and Sindh’s Keamari districts.

This is the first case of poliovirus reported in Karachi this year and the third in Qila Abdullah. Six out of this year’s eight cases have emerged from Balochistan.

As per the reference lab, wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) was detected in stool samples of a two-year-old child in Qila Abdullah, who had onset of paralysis on May 22, and a three-year-old from Keamari, who was paralysed on June 3.

Officials said the virus has been genetically lin­ked to the YB3A cluster, which has been detected in all positive cases and environmental samples repo­rted this year.

Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Ayesha Raza Farooq said the several polioviruses this year were an “unfortunate” reminder that the crippling disease remained “a threat to Pakistani children”.

“Until we eradicate this virus, no child anywhere is safe from this terrible disease,” she said, adding that the government is leading the charge against poliovirus and implementing a rigorous vaccination strategy to improve children’s immunity against the disease.

National Emergency Operations Centre Coordi­nator Muhammad Anwarul Haq said the polio programme will launch a comprehensive investigation to identify the routes of virus transmission and find out populations that might have not received the vaccination.

According to officials, the polio programme will launch a vaccination drive from July 1 to 7 to vaccinate more than 9.5 million children in 41 districts across the country.

“Parents and caregivers, religious leaders, teachers, community elders and all segments of society must play their role in countering this terrible disease and ensure that all children under five years of age around them are vaccinated multiple times against polio,” officials said.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2024