Pakistan: Additional wild poliovirus case reported, this one in Sindh
4th polio case in Pakistan
In a follow-up to a recent report, a child has been paralyzed by wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in Shikarpur district of Sindh, bringing the number of cases in Pakistan this year to four.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad has notified that WPV1 was detected from stool samples collected from of a 2.5-year-old child from Birkhan UC of Shikarpur.
The child had onset of paralysis on May 11 and genetic sequencing of the virus isolated from his samples shows that it is genetically linked to the imported YB3A cluster.
This genetic cluster disappeared from Pakistan in mid-2021 but remained in circulation in Afghanistan. It was reintroduced in Pakistan following cross-border transmission last year.
Coordinator to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Malik Mukhtar Bharat said that the National and Provincial Polio Emergency Operations Centres have deployed teams to conduct a full case investigation, while a polio vaccination campaign is being launched in 66 districts from June 3 to vaccinate children and build their immunity against poliovirus.
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This is the fourth polio case reported from Pakistan in 2024 and first case from Shikarpur in over four years. The previous three cases were reported from Balochistan.
Vaccination campaign
More than 16.5 million children under the age of five will be vaccinated in a crucial polio campaign beginning on June 3 in 66 districts, ahead of the high-travel season of Eid-ul-Adha.
The five-day campaign will be implemented in 36 districts in full and partially in 30 districts, including Islamabad, 20 districts of Balochistan, 23 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 16 districts of Sindh and six districts of Punjab.
Coordinator to the Prime Minister on National Health Services has called on parents and caregivers to ensure that their children are vaccinated during the campaign.
“Poliovirus has paralyzed 04 children this year and is consistently being detected in sewage samples, which means the risk to children remains very high,” he said, adding that the government is launching this crucial vaccination campaign right before Eid to prevent the virus from moving with people and finding more children to target.
“We are resolved to end polio from our country and the support of parents and communities is critical in helping us achieve this goal,” he said.
This is the fifth polio vaccination campaign of the current year.