Dangerous Wild Polio Virus Detected in Pakistan

Wild poliovirus was detected in sewage samples from Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. According to Pakistan’s health ministry’s statement on Wednesday, the virus was also found on April 10 in environmental samples collected from KP’s Hangu district and provincial capital Peshawar.

The two detected viruses are genetically similar to poliovirus found in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province in January this year.

Although polio has been eradicated in several countries of the world because of mass vaccination, Pakistan and Afghanistan are two countries, where polio infection still continues. Pakistan and Afghanistan will continue to work together in the battle against polio, said Pakistan Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel.

According to a media report on March 18, Pakistan reported its first polio case of 2023 after a three-year-old boy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district became the latest victim of the crippling disease.

In Pakistan, terrorists attack polio vaccination teams. On May 2, Pakistani security forces claimed to have killed a Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander who was involved in multiple attacks on polio teams.