Update on Polio, Islamabad, March 27, 2024
Three sewage samples have tested positive for wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) this year, bringing the total number of infected districts to 29 and the number of positive environmental samples to 75.
WPV1 was discovered in a wastewater sample taken from Sukkur on March 4, from Chaman on March 5, and from Karachi Central on March 6, according to the National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication, which was notified by the NIH's Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication.
The virus that was identified from the samples has a genetic connection to the YB3A poliovirus genetic cluster, which was first detected in Afghanistan in January 2023 after it vanished from Pakistan in 2021. Every single sample that tested positive has this virus.Federal Secretary for Health Iftikhar Ali Shallwani made a statement in which he urged parents and carers to make sure their children under the age of five receive the oral polio vaccine whenever possible. Polio has no known treatment and can leave a kid paralysed for life.