ISLAMABAD: Officials have detected poliovirus in an environmental sample collected from the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, health authorities said on Thursday, amid attacks targeting anti-polio vaccinators in the South Asian country.

Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease caused by the poliovirus, which mainly affects children under the age of five. The virus invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death in some cases.

Pakistan’s National Polio Laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad confirmed the detection of Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) in an environmental sample collected from Karachi’s East district in May 2023.

“The environmental (sewage) sample was collected on 15th May 2023 from the ‘Sohrab Goth” environmental sample collection site. This is the first positive environmental sample from Karachi Division this year,” the NIH said in a statement.

Previous positive sample from Karachi Division was collected in August 2022 (from “Landhi” environmental sample collection site in District Malir). The last Wild Poliovirus case from Karachi East was reported in September 2018.”

The genetic sequencing results of the sample are under process, while a polio vaccination campaign in the district was conducted on 15– 21 May, according to the statement.

Attempts to eradicate polio in Pakistan have been hit by attacks targeting inoculation teams that have claimed hundreds of lives in over a decade.

Late last month, a Pakistani soldier was killed when militants opened fire on a polio vaccination team, while a policeman guarding vaccinators was shot dead in the country’s southwest on May 19.

The crippling disease has no cure and repeated vaccination is the most effective way to protect children against it. To date, the polio vaccine has protected millions of children, allowing almost all countries in the world to become polio-free.

Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two endemic countries in the world.