The Ministry of Health sources on Wednesday confirmed the presence of poliovirus in sewage samples of the Lasbela district of Balochistan. According to sources within Health Ministry, Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) was detected in sewage samples collected from Lasbela district. “The genome sequencing of the virus, found in samples collected from Lasbela and Hub, showed that it belonged to Gadap Karachi. Last month, the Ministry of Health confirmed the presence of poliovirus in environmental samples from nine districts of the country. According to the spokesperson of the Ministry of Health, the virus was found in one sample each from Quetta, Mastung, Multan, Peshawar, Nowshera, and Hub.

The Poliovirus was also found in samples from Karachi Malir, Karachi South and Dera Ismail Khan. It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan reported its sixth polio case of 2023 after a nine-month-old child in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Orakzai district became the latest victim of the crippling disease in December last year. The Ministry of Health confirmed that the polio virus was found in a 9-month-old child in Orakzai district. Polio, a highly infectious and incurable disease, mainly affects children under the age of five. The virus invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death in some cases.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)