The National Institute of Health has confirmed that a wild strain of poliovirus was detected in a sewage sample collected in the Lasbela district of Balochistan.
According to the Regional Reference Lab for Polio Eradication at NIH, the virus was collected from Lasbela on January 23; the virus is a member of the YB3A cluster of imported viruses.
Sources in the Ministry of Health confirmed that Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) was detected in wastewater samples collected from Lasbela.
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As of now, Pakistan has documented 31 environmental samples that tested positive in January, with each sample containing the imported virus. The virus was found in one sample each from Quetta, Mastung, Multan, Peshawar, Nowshera, and Hub, a spokesperson health ministry said.
Dr. Nadeem Jan, the federal health minister, stated that the increased detection of the wild poliovirus demonstrates how it can continue to threaten children worldwide by migrating populations.
As stated by Dr. Jan, “This virus exhibits no discrimination and will specifically target children with compromised immunity.” Consequently, all children below the age of five must receive multiple doses of oral polio vaccine and complete their routine immunization courses.
It should be noted that Pakistan documented its sixth affectee of polio in 2023 after December of the previous year when a nine-month-old child in the Orakzai district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was diagnosed with the polio illness.