Islamabad
Pakistan has confirmed two new polio cases on Sunday, bringing the total to 39 for the year. The latest victims, a girl and a boy, were detected in Sindh province, specifically in the Sanghar and Mirpurkhas districts.
These cases were confirmed on October 19, following four additional cases reported just a day earlier, raising concerns about the country’s efforts to eradicate the poliovirus. Officials from the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication noted that these are the first confirmed cases from Mirpurkhas and Sanghar this year. They added that environmental samples had previously tested positive for the wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in these areas since April.
Of the 39 cases reported this year, 20 are from Balochistan, 12 from Sindh, five from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
Ayesha Raza Farooq, the Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication, acknowledged the virus’s spread across the country. She announced a new nationwide vaccination campaign scheduled to start on October 28, aiming to immunize over 45 million children under the age of five. Currently, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic, according to the World Health Organization.
