Pakistan reports two new polio cases

Peshawar, Sep 15 (PTI) Pakistan has reported two new polio cases in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, taking the total number of cases in the country this year to 26, the National Institute of Health (NIH) said on Monday.

According to a statement issued by the NIH, one of the cases was detected in North Waziristan’s Mir Ali tehsil in a 19-month-old child, while the other case was confirmed in an 11-month-old in Lakki Marwat’s Suleman Khel tehsil.

The two new cases have taken the total number of cases in the province to 18, the highest from any province in the country. The nationwide tally now stands at 26, with six cases from Sindh, 18 from KP and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan, NIH said.

Sharing the results of August's environmental sewage samples regarding polio — collected from 87 districts across the country — the NIH said, “of the 126 environmental samples tested, 75 were found negative with no poliovirus detected, while 51 samples tested positive.” It said out of a total of 23 samples tested for polio in Balochistan, only one was positive, while in KP, out of 34 samples, 10 were positive.

Punjab recorded 14 polio-positive samples out of 31 tested; Polio virus was found in 24 of the 29 samples tested in Sindh, 12 of which were in Karachi, the NIH said.

One sample each was found positive in GB and Islamabad.

The NIH expressed concern at the “continued detection of cases, particularly in southern KP,” saying that “children living in hard-to-reach areas and those in communities with low vaccine acceptance remain most at risk.” A sub-national polio campaign began in southern KP on Monday and is set to run for the next three days.

KP Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah has “directed urgent, intensified efforts to ensure no child is left unvaccinated.” Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic. Despite global efforts to eradicate the virus, challenges such as security issues, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation have slowed progress. PTI AYZ ZH ZH