Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa confirmed the detection of another polio case on Wednesday, bringing the nation’s total for the current year to 56.
Along with Afghanistan, Pakistan is one of the last two nations in the world where polio is still a major problem. Despite international efforts to eradicate the virus, progress has been hindered by obstacles like misinformation, vaccine hesitancy, and security concerns.
A news release from the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) stated that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Islamabad’s Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication confirmed the case’s detection in a youngster.
It further stated that DI Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts in southern KP, had reported the seventh polio case of the year.
With 56 cases confirmed so far this year, the NEOC said the nation was coping with a “intense resurgence” of wild poliovirus.
According to the report, Sindh recorded 13 incidents, Punjab reported one, and Islamabad reported one, while Balochistan and KP reported the most, with 26 and 15, respectively.
“Polio can only be prevented; there is no cure,” the news statement stated. To guarantee high immunity against the disease, it recommended giving all children under the age of five several doses of polio drops and seeing to it that they completed a regular immunization schedule.
It also stated that the Pakistan Polio Program vaccinated children in their homes through a number of mass immunization campaigns each year. “Vaccinations against 12 childhood diseases are provided free of charge at health facilities through the Expanded Programme on Immunization,” it continued.
According to the press release, “parents must make sure that all of their children under the age of five receive vaccinations in order to keep them safe and contribute to Pakistan becoming polio-free.”
Three instances were recorded in KP and Balochistan on Sunday. The three cases were verified by the reference laboratory, and a lab official informed Dawn that DI Khan, Zhob, and Jaffarabad have reported other cases.
A five-month-old boy and two girls, ages eight and twenty months, were the casualties.
Reiterating the highest political commitment to eradicate the illness and safeguard all children from paralytic polio, the government hosted a high-level delegation from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) on Saturday for the second time this year.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed that the government’s top priority was the elimination of polio and thanked the GPEI partners and funders for their support over the years.
“All chief ministers and secretaries are directly supervising and coordinating to combat the current polio outbreak, and a strategic National Emergency Action Plan is being implemented to reverse the virus surge,” he stated.
