Efforts to eliminate polio suffered another blow after a northern enclave reported its first case in seven years. Overall, it was the country’s 11th case since January, despite the launch of several immunisation drives.
The virus was detected in a child from the district of Diamer in the Gilgit-Baltistan region, according to the country’s polio eradication programme.
Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where the spread of the wild polio virus has not been stopped, according to the World Health Organisation. There are ongoing outbreaks linked to the oral vaccine in 10 other countries.
The new case was reported after Pakistan wrapped up its third nationwide polio vaccination drive of the year, aiming to immunise 45 million children.
Local health officials were still trying to determine how the poliovirus that was found in the southern port city of Karachi had infected the child in Diamer.
The polio eradication programme has been running campaigns for years, though health workers and the police assigned to protect them are often targeted by militants who falsely claim the vaccination are a Western conspiracy to sterilise children.
Since the 1990s, attacks on vaccination teams have killed more than 200. — AP
