Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: On Saturday, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif expressed concern over resurfacing of a first poliovirus case in the country after a period of 15 months.

Summoning a report from the authorities concerned, the prime minister directed for the formulation of a strategy to eradicate the crippling disease from the country. Moreover, the prime minister summoned a meeting of the National Task Force for Polio Eradication on Monday, PM Office Media Wing said.

A 15-month-old boy was paralysed by wild poliovirus in the first such case in 15 months. This is the third case of wild polio to be recorded globally in 2022.

The type-1 wild poliovirus (WPV1) was confirmed in the child from North Waziristan on April 22, 2022 by the Pakistan National polio laboratory at the NIH, Islamabad, with the onset of paralysis on April 9.

The Pakistan polio laboratory also confirmed the detection of a positive environmental sample collected on April 5 from Bannu district of the same province. Both the viruses are closely related to each other.

Pakistan had reported one case last year with onset on January 27 in Killa Abdullah, Balochistan. “This is, of course, a tragedy for the child and his family and it is also very unfortunate both for Pakistan and polio eradication efforts all over the world. We are disappointed but not deterred,” Secretary Health Aamir Ashraf said. “The case has appeared in Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the poliovirus was detected in the environment late last year and where an emergency action plan is already being implemented.”

The health secretary added, “The National and Provincial Polio Emergency Operations Centres have deployed teams to conduct a full investigation of the recent case, while emergency immunisation campaigns are underway to prevent further spread of the wild poliovirus in Pakistan.”