Wild poliovirus case reported from Chaman

Quetta: A child has been paralyzed by wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in Chaman district of Balochistan.

According to the Regional Reference Lab for Polio Eradication based at the National Institute of Health, WPV1 was isolated from the stool samples of a 52-months-old child from Chaman.

The child had onset of paralysis on February 29 and the isolated virus belongs to the imported YB3A cluster, which has been detected in 10 positive samples reported from Chaman since October 2023.

This is the second polio case reported from Pakistan in 2024 and first case from Chaman in almost four years.

 The first case of 2024 was reported from Dera Bugti on March 14.

Poliovirus is in communities and continues to remain a persistent threat to children across the country since it has been detected in 56 environmental samples of more than 25 districts so far this year and in more than 100 sewage samples last year.

The virus particularly attacks children who are malnourished and have weak immunity because of being under-vaccinated or not vaccinated for polio and other childhood diseases.

These children are unable to fight off a polio infection and the virus can paralyze them for life.

The Pakistan Polio Programme urged parents and caregivers, religious leaders, teachers, community elders and all sections of society to play their role in countering this terrible disease and ensure that all children under five years of age around them are vaccinated multiple times against polio.

The Polio Programme has conducted two nationwide polio vaccination drives since the beginning of 2024 to vaccinate more than 45 million children and boost their immunity.

As a case response, a polio drive will begin in all districts of virus detection from March 25 to vaccinate more than 6 million children.