Pakistan: Four Samples Collected From Four Cities Tests Positive For Wild Poliovirus 1

Islamabad [Pakistan] : The four environmental samples collected from four different cities of Pakistan have tested positive for Wild Poliovirus 1 (WPV1), ARY News reported on Thursday quoting a health department official.

According to the Pakistan-based media outlet, the samples collected from Karachi, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, and Chaman have tested positive for WPV1.

According to the Pakistan Polio Laboratory at the National Institute of Health, the samples collected from all cities showed that it belonged to Afghanistan.

Environmental samples collected from four more cities have also been found positive for poliovirus, a week after samples collected from Hub, Lahore and Peshawar had tested positive.

Meanwhile, Minister of Health Dr Nadeem Jan expressed concern over the detection of the virus in the environmental samples and directed officials concerned to take all possible steps to protect children from the virus of the crippling disease, according to the report, ARY News reported.

“So far 43 samples have been found positive in the country which is concerning. Pakistan has the most effective surveillance system and it has been working effectively,” Dr Jan said.

Earlier, Health Minister Jan said 90 per cent of polio cases in Pakistan have been “imported from Afghanistan”, Dawn reported.

Nadeem’s remarks came after two more samples tested positive for the poliovirus in Pakistan, just a day after this year’s third case surfaced.

According to an official at the polio laboratory of the National Institute of Health (NIH), sewage samples collected from Dera Bugti, in Balochistan, and Peshawar had tested positive for the virus. Both viruses, found in sewage samples, are similar to Afghanistan’s poliovirus.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the polio virus remains endemic.

According to authorities, the transmission of wild poliovirus has been restricted to seven districts in the south of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, namely Tank, Bannu, North Waziristan, South Waziristan Upper, South Waziristan Lower, Dera Ismail Khan and Lakki Marwat, Dawn reported.

In a report released in August, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said since January 2021, all reported cases were from the seven polio-endemic districts in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.