Another polio case emerges in Balochistan

QUETTA: Another new polio case has been reported in Balochistan on Saturday, raising this year’s tally to seven in the province.

According to the polio emergency operation center Pakistan, a four-year-old girl was tested positive for poliovirus in Osta Mohammad Tehsil of Jaffarabad in Balochistan. The total tally of polio cases across the country reached to 42 this year.

The last case was reported on 11 March in the province when a two-year-old boy was tested positive for poliovirus in Zhob region of Balochistan. On April 27, two fresh cases of polio Type-2 were reported in KP.

According to the Polio Emergency Operation Centre, the cases emerged from Peshawar and South Waziristan, raising the tally of Type-2 cases to 38 for the current year.

As per the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme’s website, the total number of polio cases reported in Pakistan this year has reached 42 – 01 from Punjab, 15 from Sindh, 19 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and 07 from Balochistan.

Moreover, global polio eradication campaigns were also suspended in March for the first time in three decades amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The total number of polio cases in Pakistan last year stood at 136, in which 92 cases were diagnosed from KP, followed by Sindh (25 cases), Balochistan (11 cases) and Punjab (8 cases).

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by the poliovirus mostly affecting children under the age of five.

It invades the nervous system and causes paralysis or even death. Unfortunately, Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan and Nigeria, affected by poliovirus.