- Fresh case, a two-and-a-half-year-old child, confirmed day after virus diagnosed in minor girl in KP’s Kohat district
KARACHI: Poliovirus cases in Pakistan continue to rise as another case was detected in Sindh’s Hyderabad on Saturday, taking the total number of polio cases to 24 in the current year so far.
The fresh case, a two-and-a-half-year-old child from Sindh’s Hyderabad was diagnosed as having been infected by the poliovirus.
According to the National Emergency Operations Centre, the child in Hyderabad marked the city’s second polio case, bringing the number of polio case in Sindh province to five so far in the current year.
The latest polio case comes a day after authorities had confirmed that a 10-month-old baby girl in district Kohat of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was diagnosed with the virus, marking the second case in KP province this year.
The infant from Tehsil Darra Adamkhel had contracted the wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) that left her paralysed on September 12.
Before that, authorities had confirmed that a 30-month-old boy from Pishin, Balochistan, was struck by the poliovirus marking the province’s 15th case this year.
All these cases were reported within this week marking almost a daily growth in the number of polio cases, leading to increased scrutiny of the country’s polio eradication efforts.
So far, Balochistan remains the epicentre of the outbreak with 15 confirmed cases, while Sindh has now reported five. Additionally, Punjab and Islamabad have recorded one case each with KP has reported two case so far this year.
Earlier this week, Muhammad Anwarul Haq, the national coordinator for the Polio Emergency Operations Centre, emphasised the urgency of addressing gaps in efforts to fight this disease.
“Every missed vaccination is an opportunity for the virus to win,” he warned.
Calling for collective action from both the government and the public, Haq highlighted that the solution lies in ensuring timely and repeated vaccinations for all children.
Meanwhile, Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s focal person for polio eradication, also voiced frustration at the lack of progress and immunisation coverage as a result of parental refusals, often due to misinformation or mistrust.
Pakistan’s polio eradication programme organised an anti-polio campaign in 115 districts of the country this month in which 33 million children under the age of five years were given polio vaccinations.
However, the programme continues to face significant challenges, particularly in areas where insecurity, misinformation, and parental refusals hinder vaccination campaigns.
