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ISLAMABAD: Two new polio cases were reported from Karachi East and Sujawal districts of Sindh, taking Pakistan’s yearly tally to 26, the National Institute of Health confirmed.
According to the details, this is the first case of the year from Karachi East and Sujawal district where environmental samples have shown the presence of poliovirus in recent months.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed that a seven-year-old girl was paralysed by the poliovirus in District East and a 12-month-old boy in Tehsil Jati of Sujawal.
Of the 26 polio cases reported this year, 15 are from Balochistan, seven from Sindh, two from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication Ayesha Raza Farooq said, “It is heartbreaking that Pakistani children are still being threatened by a disease that can be easily prevented with the help of an easily available polio vaccine.”
“One child affected by polio means that hundreds of children around them can be silent carriers of the virus. No child anywhere is safe until all children in Pakistan are repeatedly vaccinated for polio, building a wall of protection so the virus cannot break through,” she added.
Pakistan is one of the two remaining polio-endemic countries in the world, along with Afghanistan, and the number of cases on a yearly basis has significantly dropped in the country.
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