One more polio case reported in Pakistan rise to 18 this year

News Desk

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province has reported another poliovirus case from North Waziristan, a newly merged district that has been a hotbed on the crippling disease in the country.

In a statement, the National Institute of Health (NIH) said the child from the North Waziristan district of KP, had been paralyzed by disabilities induced by the Wild Poliovirus type 1 (WPV-1) disease.

With addition of this new polio case, the health sources said, the number of poliovirus cases has reached to 18 in the country this year.

All these polio cases have been reported from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa of which 16 were confirmed from North Waziristan while two from Lakki Marwat.

A three-month-old baby boy in the North Waziristan district of KP province becomes the latest victim of the crippling poliovirus

However, it said the poliovirus presence has also been confirmed in environmental samples collected from Bannu, Peshawar, Swat and Lahore.

According to the National Institute of Health (NIH), the south and northern districts of the province have been declared sensitive and emergency measures are being taken to completely eradicate crippling police from the country.

Meanwhile, in April 2022, the national polio lab confirmed that the first poliovirus case was detected in North Waziristan; 15 months after the last poliovirus case had been reported back in January 2021 from Killa Abdullah.