Pakistan reports 50th polio (WPV1) case of 2024
Pakistani health officials report the confirmation of an additional wild poliovirus (WPV1) case in the country.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health confirmed the case in a girl from Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), bringing the number of cases this year in Pakistan to 50. This is up from six cases reported in all of 2023.
This is the second polio case from Tank. So far, 24 cases have been reported from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 11 from KP and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
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.
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In neighboring Afghanistan, the second of the two last polio endemic countries, 23 WPV1 cases year to date.
Since the beginning of 2024, a total of 73 cases of polio have been documented across Afghanistan and Pakistan. This compares to 12 cases reported globally in 2023.
