The National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) on Tuesday said that a second polio case was reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Tank district, bringing the year’s tally to 50.
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.
In a statement, the NEOC said the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at Islamabad’s National Institutes of Health confirmed the detection of another wild poliovirus (WPV1) case in a girl from Tank district on Monday.
“Genetic sequencing of the virus isolated from collected samples indicates it is genetically linked to WPV1 detected in the same district in July,” the NEOC said.
“Tank is one of the polio-endemic districts of southern KP and has reported multiple positive environmental samples this year as well as two cases, indicating that poliovirus circulation remains a threat to children.”
The NEOC said that 24 cases have been reported from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 11 from KP and one each from Punjab and Islamabad so far for the year.
