A poliovirus was found for the second time in Rawalpindi district during a sewage sampling carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO). According to an official of the District Health Authority, the poliovirus was found in a sample collected from a nullah at Safdarabad near Pirwadhai. He said the sewage sample from Safdardabad was collected on August 10 and the virus was stated to be genetically linked to YB3A cluster, which is active in Nangarhar, Afghanistan. Earlier in July, an environmental sample collected from Peshawar had tested positive for wild poliovirus. According to the Pakistan Polio Laboratory at the National Institute of Health, the virus was detected in a sewage sample collected from the Naray Khuwar site and is genetically linked to poliovirus in circulation in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)