KARACHI: Pakistan reported two new polio cases on Thursday, pushing this year’s tally of the infection to 67, the country’s polio eradication program said amid Islamabad’s struggle to contain the spread of the disease.
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.
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.
Poliovirus, which can cause crippling paralysis particularly in young children, is incurable and remains a threat to human health as long as it has not been eradicated. Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain.
In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners, who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
Pakistan reports two new polio cases as 2024 tally surges to 67
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Pakistan reports two new polio cases as 2024 tally surges to 67
- Pakistan detects poliovirus cases from Kashmore in southern Sindh and Tank in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces
- Efforts to eradicate polio have been undermined by misinformation, opposition from religious hard-liners
Sindh chief minister pledges compensation within two months after Karachi plaza fire
- Murad Ali Shah says government is working with Karachi chamber to help shopkeepers restart businesses
- January fire that killed at least 67 brought safety of Karachi’s commercial buildings under sharp focus
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said on Friday compensation for shopkeepers affected by last month’s deadly Gul Plaza shopping mall blaze would be released within two months amid calls for improved fire safety regulations to protect commercial buildings in Karachi.
The fire at Gul Plaza in January killed at least 67 people and left more than 15 missing, triggering renewed criticism of lax enforcement of building codes and emergency preparedness in Pakistan’s largest city.
Authorities said the blaze spread rapidly through the multi-story commercial complex, complicating rescue efforts and raising questions about wiring, access routes and fire safety systems in older markets.
“The government in collaboration with the Karachi Chamber is actively working to help shopkeepers restart their businesses and aims to ensure that compensation is provided within two months so that the shopkeepers can buy inventories to restart their businesses,” the chief minister said while addressing the inauguration of the My Karachi Exhibition, an annual trade and consumer exhibition, according to an official statement.
He said temporary locations had been identified where shopkeepers could operate rent-free until reconstruction is completed, paying only basic maintenance costs.
Shah reiterated the Sindh administration’s commitment to provide Rs 10 million ($36,000) to the families of those who died in the fire, along with immediate relief of Rs 500,000 ($1,785) for affected shopkeepers.
He said Gul Plaza would be rebuilt within two years “in the same manner and with the same number of shops,” adding that the new structure would be safer and constructed “without a single square inch extra.”
Business leaders at the event called for stricter enforcement of fire safety standards across Karachi’s commercial districts, citing unregulated electrical wiring and poor compliance as recurring causes of deadly market fires.
