Pak reports 68 polio cases this year despite govt efforts to curb disease

Pakistan reported a new polio case on Dec 30, taking the year’s tally to 68 in a blow to national efforts to control the crippling disease.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a leading hospital of the country, the new infection was reported in Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Dec 30 confirmed the detection of the 68th wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case of 2024 from the country in DI Khan,” the statement said.

So far this year, 27 cases have been reported from Balochistan, 20 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

The virus has persisted despite Pakistan conducting multiple mass vaccination drives in 2024 to provide free of cost vaccines to children under five years at their doorsteps.

A sub-national polio vaccination campaign was conducted across Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad from December 16 to 22 vaccinating over 42 million children.

Polio is a paralyzing disease that has no cure and anti-polio vaccine is the only way to prevent its infection.

However, parents refuse to give vaccines to their kids due to widespread misconception that the vaccine is a global conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children.

Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic.

(PTI)