Two more polio cases surface in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

ISLAMABAD: The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan, bringing the number of total cases in the country this year to 45.

The lab confirmed the cases from Lakki Marwat, where a girl child is affected, and from Dera Ismail Khan, where a male child is affected.

Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway.

These are the second polio cases reported from Dera Ismail Khan and Lakki Marwat this year, where environmental samples have tested positive in recent months.

So far, 22 polio cases have been reported from Balochistan,12 from Sindh, nine from KP and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

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Earlier, Prime Minister (PM) Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Monday expressed the government’s resolve to make Pakistan a polio free country, stressing the need for unified action in this regard.

“We will not rest until we have permanently defeated polio”, he said while chairing a meeting on polio eradication here.

Commending the efforts of the government’s polio team in combating the disease, he directed Coordinator for National Health Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Bharath, Polio Focal Person Ayesha Raza Farooq, and the Secretary of National Health to visit the most affected areas during the recent polio campaign.

PM Shehbaz also directed to conduct a third party audit of the anti-polio campaign.