According to ARY News, the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at Pakistan’s National Institute of Health has discovered the wild poliovirus form 1 in wastewater samples from 18 different regions in Pakistan.
The virus was discovered in economic tests taken between February 21 and March 6 at the National Emergency Operations Center for Polio. According to ARY information, these tests came from various wastewater lines in Pakistan’s four provinces.
12 towns in Sindh, 2 districts in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one area in Balochistan and Islamabad are among the areas affected.
In particular, smallpox signs were discovered in wastewater from cities like Islamabad, Chaman in Balochistan, South Waziristan, Dir in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore, and Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab. According to ARY News, the disease was found in areas like Badin, Dadu, Hyderabad, Jacobabad, Shaheed Benazirabad, Sujawal, Qambar, Sukkur, and Karachi East, West, Central, and Kemari.
Although the majority of the towns tested good, four places showed no signs of the disease. Pakistan has previously identified six confirmed smallpox cases this year, with four coming from Sindh and one from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. According to ARY News, the nation reported 74 cases in 2024, mainly in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh.
Polio is still a crippling illness that has no known solution. The dental influenza vaccine is a vital tool for preventing lethal illnesses for children under five. For great resistance and the fight against influenza in Pakistan, it is crucial to ensure that all children finish the vaccination schedule, according to ARY News.
Every child under five must receive a consistent dose of the oral polio vaccine in order to guarantee that they have a strong immune system against this terminal illness.
Prior, the National Institute of Health’s Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication found that polioviruses were present in sewage systems in 12 towns in three counties.
