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ISLAMABAD: Poliovirus traces have been gathered from sewage samples in Lahore, Peshawar and Hub.
According to sources in Pakistan’s National Polio Laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) was detected in sewage samples collected from Hub, Lahore and Peshawar.
“The genome sequencing of the virus, found in samples collected from Peshawar and Hub, showed that it belonged to Afghanistan. However, the process of genome sequencing of the sample, collected from Lahore, is yet to be completed,” a NIH lab official said.
He added that sewage samples collected from an area are a basic parameter to determine the success of polio campaigns.
Polio, a highly infectious and incurable disease, mainly affects children under the age of five. The virus invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis or even death in some cases.
In the year 2022, as many as 20 cases of poliovirus were reported across the country. Pakistan was come near to eradication of disease in year 2021 when only one case was reported in the country.