QUETTA: Pakistan reported two new cases of the poliovirus on Friday, the National Institute of Health (NIH) confirmed, taking this year’s tally of polio cases to eight.
Pakistan reported its sixth polio case on Tuesday. The disease has been eliminated in developed nations but persists in parts of India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The two new cases of the disease were reported from the country’s southwestern Balochistan province and Karachi city, the NIH said in a report.
“The National Institute of Health Islamabad has confirmed the detection of Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) in stool specimens from two children, one from Killa Abdullah district and the other from Karachi Keamari district,” the institute said.
In Killah Abdullah, a 24-month-old boy contracted polio and suffered paralysis on May 22, the NIH said. It added that this was the third polio case from Killah Abdullah and the sixth overall this year from Balochistan.
Meanwhile, in Karachi, a 36-month-old girl contracted the disease and suffered paralysis on June 3.
“This is the first polio case from District Karachi Keamari and the second from Sindh province,” the NIH said.
Pakistan’s efforts to eradicate the disease have met a stiff challenge in the form of attacks by militant outfits on polio workers.
Many Pakistanis, particularly those residing in the conservative tribal areas, consider the polio vaccination a Western campaign aimed at sterilizing the country’s population.
In 2012, the local Taliban had ordered a ban on immunization against polio in some tribal districts. Dozens of polio workers have been killed in the country in the line of duty.
