QUETTA: Pakistan’s National Institute of Health (NIH) confirmed two new cases of poliovirus infection on Friday, taking the total number of polio cases this year to eight.
Pakistan reported its sixth case of polio on Tuesday. The disease has been eradicated in developed countries but remains endemic in parts of India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The two new cases of the disease were reported in Balochistan province in the country’s southwest and in Karachi city, according to the NIH report.
“The National Institute of Health, Islamabad, has confirmed the detection of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in stool samples from one child from Qila Abdullah area and one child from Keamari area of Karachi,” the institute said in a statement.
In Killa Abdullah, a 24-month-old boy was infected with polio on May 22 and suffered paralysis, the NIH said, adding that this is the third case of polio in Killa Abdullah and the sixth in Balochistan this year.
Meanwhile, in Karachi, a 36-month-old girl was infected on June 3 and suffered paralysis.
“This is the first case of polio in Karachi’s Keamari district and the second in Sindh,” the NIH said.
Pakistan’s polio eradication efforts face steep challenges from militant attacks on polio eradication activists.
Many Pakistanis, especially those living in conservative tribal areas, see polio vaccination as a Western campaign aimed at sterilizing the country’s population.
In 2012, local Taliban forces ordered a ban on polio vaccinations in some tribal areas, and dozens of polio vaccinators have been killed in the line of duty across the country.
