TAXILA: Health authorities are on their toes as a poliovirus was found in the environmental (sewage) sample collected from the Sarai Kala locality of Taxila.

This is the first positive sample case in the district of Rawalpindi this year.

District health officer preventive services Dr Ehsan Ghani told Dawn that the polio laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad had confirmed the detection of Type-1 wild poliovirus (WPV1) in the environmental sample collected from Taxila in July 2023.

Responding to a question, Dr Ghani said Type-1 wild poliovirus was of Afghan origin, adding most of the residents in the area had come from Afghanistan. He said the detection of Pakistan’s second polio case in Bannu this year also had Afghan origin.

He said to cope with the situation, an anti-polio campaign was being launched in four tehsils of Rawalpindi from August 7.

Responding to another question, he said the last wild poliovirus case in the district was reported in June 2010. He said the new detection took the total number of positive environmental samples in Pakistan to 14. He said the last polio vaccination campaign in the district was conducted from May 15 to 21.

When contacted, deputy district officer health Dr Shahzad Rasool said WPV1 in sewage was found in nullah that passes through Sarai Kala and falls into river Haro. He said 99 per cent of the area was inhabited by Afghan migrants and IDPs from various tribal districts.

He said health authorities believed that the poliovirus found in the Sarae Kala area was linked to the virus that was crippling children in Afghanistan. He said the samples were collected by WHO teams and sent to the NIH. He said the the situation has dented Pakistan’s efforts to get polio-free status in 2023.

Responding to a question, he said a polio campaign will be conducted from 7 to August 13. During the campaign, around 1,30,000 children under the age of five would be targeted in 22 union councils of tehsil Taxila.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2023