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ISLAMABAD: Another case of poliovirus has taken last year’s tally of cases to 70, officials have confirmed.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in a male child from Karachi’s East district.
The case has been counted in last year’s tally as the sample was collected in 2024, a lab official said.
Karachi’s East district has now reported two polio cases in 2024.
The country has been responding to an intense resurgence of WPV1, with 70 cases reported in 2024.
Of these, 27 are from Balochistan, 21 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 20 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
Amid mounting number of cases, the government has intensified efforts to control the spread of the crippling disease.
The year’s first nationwide vaccination campaign is scheduled from Feb 3 to Feb 9.
Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2025
