The National Emergency Operations Center (EOC) on Saturday said two new cases of wild poliovirus had surfaced in the country, swelling the nationwide tally to 45.
The National EOC said one poliovirus case was detected in a girl, resident of Lakki Marwat, and the other in a boy, resident of Dera Ismail Khan.
As per the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), the two new cases of wild poliovirus are of type 1, media reported.
This marks the second polio case this year from each of these districts, where environmental samples had already tested positive for WPV1, underlining a high risk of virus transmission in the region.
The health personnel said they were trying to trace the virus transmission patterns as genetic sequencing of samples collected from the affected kids was afoot.
Out of the 45 cases detected in Pakistan this year, 22 were reported from Balochistan, 12 from Sindh, 9 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
A nationwide polio vaccination campaign is currently ongoing in the country to continue till November 3, aiming to vaccinate over 45 million children under the age of five against the virus.
