A polio case has surfaced in Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after which the tally in Pakistan this year has mounted to 48.
According to the Health Department sources, a one-year-old child has been diagnosed with poliovirus in Union Council Mamakhel of Bannu. It has taken the tally of infected children in five districts of KP to 20. Lakki Marwat has reported 12 cases, Tank has reported four, Karak two and South Waziristan has reported one case this year.
It is the first polio case in Bannu this year. On May 01, two polio cases surfaced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.
The fresh polio case in Bannu has surfaced at a time when all the vaccination campaigns are suspended due to the coronavirus threat. The government is now easing the lockdown gradually and markets and other businesses and transport are being opened. It is expected that the government may also resume vaccination campaigns keeping in view the needs of children who are at risk of contracting the virus, particularly in vulnerable areas.
It is worthy to note here that Poliovirus is creating havoc in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The virus has been eliminated from the rest of the countries of the world.
The total number for the last year cases has jumped to 24 in Pakistan, out of which, 11 cases were reported in KP, seven in tribal districts and three each in Sindh and Punjab provinces.
The extensive environmental surveillance established by the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme in previous months detected the polio virus in sewage of twelve cities.
According to result shared by the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), the presence of virus was confirmed in sewage samples collected in March 2019 from cities of Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Mardan, Bannu, Waziristan, Hyderabad, Kambar and Sukkur
