Polio tally in Pakistan rises to 41 this year

The fresh cases were reported on Friday and Thursday, coinciding with the global observance of the Polio Day on October 24, the Dawn newspaper reported

Islamabad: Pakistan has reported two new polio cases, taking the country’s tally of the crippling disease to 41 this year, according to media reports on Saturday.

The fresh cases were reported on Friday and Thursday, coinciding with the global observance of the Polio Day on October 24, the Dawn newspaper reported.

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Reported in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, the cases jolted the country’s efforts to eradicate the polio virus.

The patient in Balochistan’s Loralai district was a 42-month-old girl who had onset of paralysis on October 8, the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health here confirmed.

This was the first case reported from the district this year.

According to the report, the girl had not received any anti-polio vaccination dose during routine immunisation campaigns.

Meanwhile, the polio case in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was reported in the Kohat district. The patient was a 30-month-old boy.

So far, 21 cases have been reported from Balochistan, 12 from Sindh, six from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad, according to the report.

As polio cases rise in the country, the Pakistan Polio Programme is launching a nationwide vaccination campaign next week to vaccinate more than 45 million children.

Earlier, 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.

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