ISLAMABAD: Wild poliovirus has been detected in sewage samples from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Ministry of National Health Services said.
The virus was also found on April 10 in environmental samples collected from the Hangu district and the provincial capital Peshawar, the ministry said in a statement.
The two detected viruses are genetically linked to poliovirus found in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province in January this year, it added.
Polio is a highly infectious disease that invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours.
Health teams in Afghanistan have been attacked repeatedly since the Taliban denounced vaccines as a Western plot to sterilise Muslims and imposed bans on inoculation in 2012.
Pakistan and Afghanistan will continue to work together in the battle against polio, Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel said in a statement.
