Two new polio cases reported as 2024 tally surges to 67 in Pakistan
Cases were reported from Tank, Kashmore
KARACHI (Web Desk) - Pakistan reported two new polio cases on Thursday, pushing this year’s tally of the infection to 67, according to a media report.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at Pakistan’s National Institute of Health confirmed that two wild poliovirus type 1 cases, one each from Tank in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmore in Sindh were reported on Thursday.
“Pakistan is responding to the resurgence of WPV1 this year with 67 cases reported so far,” the Polio Eradication Programme said.
“Of these, 27 are from Balochistan, 19 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.”
It said that this was the fourth case reported from Tank and second from Kashmore this year.
Pakistani authorities last week conducted a large-scale sub-national polio vaccination campaign in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad, vaccinating over 42 million children.
The second phase of the campaign is scheduled to begin on Dec. 30, covering Balochistan province.
Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world.
The nation’s polio eradication campaign has faced serious problems with a spike in reported cases this year that have prompted officials to review their approach to stopping the crippling disease.
