Poliovirus has been detected in environmental samples collected in seven districts of the nation, said the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme on Saturday.
The programme mentioned that virus was isolated in environmental samples from Quetta, Gwadar, South Waziristan (lower) and South Waziristan (upper). In addition to this, environmental samples collected from Larkana, Rawalpindi and Mirpurkhas also had poliovirus.
In a good news, environmental samples taken from Pishin and Lahore were found to be free of the poliovirus by the Polio Eradication Programme, the public body working to eradicate the crippling disease from the nation.
Nine sewage samples from nine districts of Pakistan were taken from May 8 to 23 as part of environment surveillance activities, reports the anti-poliovirus organisation.
The Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) on June 16 indicated that refusal to be vaccinated was on the increase in Karachi, with a minimum of 37,711 parents rejecting polio vaccine in May.
This was an increase in the number of refusal cases as parents in the port city went on to reject vaccinating children against polio.
37,360 parents rejected the anti-polio vaccination in April, as indicated by the EOC.
Polio Cases in Pakistan
Polio is a highly contagious poliovirus disease that mostly targets children below the age of five. It can infect the nervous system and cause paralysis or death. Despite no cure for polio, the best method of preventing the disease in children is vaccination.
Pakistan is one of the two polio-endemic countries of the world, with Afghanistan, and its case numbers yearly had declined considerably in the nation until recently when there was a surge in cases.
Until now this year, Pakistan has seen 6 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4 in Sindh, and 1 in each of Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan, following Friday’s reporting of Pakistan’s 12th case of poliovirus this year by KP’s Bannu district.
Though national campaigns have made advances, southern KP continues to be problematic because of access and challenges to house-to-house immunization, with many children remaining unvaccinated and at risk.
In 2025, three national campaigns — conducted in February, April and May — have reached more than 45 million children, assisted by 400,000 frontline workers, including 225,000 female vaccinators, the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Islamabad reported.
The Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme launched last month its third National Immunisation Days (NIDs) campaign in a bid to transform Pakistan into a polio-free country.
