KARACHI: Unofficial sources have revealed that a new poliovirus case has surfaced in Jacobabad, Sindh. The Ministry of Health has not confirmed the news yet.
According to sources, the patient is a 3 year old child. This brings the tally for poliovirus to 37 in Pakistan. Three other cases of polio were reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in last week of March, which brought the KP tally to 18.
The cases were resident of Lakki Marwat, Tank and Karak, according to KP Emergency Operations Center for Polio Eradication. The center also confirmed that the children detected with infection were not immunized against the virus.
The current virus crisis has dealt an unprecedented blow to the world’s battle against polio. The head of the global organisation to combat the disease – Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) – suspended vaccination campaigns for the first time in three decades.
Also read: http://www.voiceofsindh.com.pk/polio-eradication-drives-suspended-globally/
In an announcement last week, GPEI said that immunization campaigns across the globe would remain halted until at least June cautioning it was impossible to predict when the campaigns can resume and decisions will be made on a country-by-country basis.
Pakistan is among the two nations where the wild strain of poliovirus still thrives. The other is Afghanistan. The vaccine provides protection against both wild and vaccine-derived outbreaks of the virus, which spreads in areas of poor sanitation and contaminated water and can cause irreversible paralysis. Children under five are particularly vulnerable.
