Poliovirus found in sewage samples of three more cities

ISLAMABAD: The National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad has confirmed the detection of Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) in the environmental samples of 3 more Pakistan cities.

According to the Regional Reference Lab for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), sewage samples collected from Karachi South, Karachi Central, Jamshoro and Hub contained poliovirus, which as genetically linked to the imported YB3A genetic cluster of WPV1.

“The virus has been found in sewage samples of 34 districts so far this year. All positive samples and the two human cases reported in 2024 contain the YB3A cluster, which had disappeared from Pakistan in 2021, but remained in circulation in Afghanistan and was reintroduced through cross-border transmission last year,” an official of the health ministry said.

A day earlier, three samples collected from different districts of Karachi and one sample collected from Pishin had been found positive.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last Friday expressed the hope that the government, in collaboration with the global partners and national institutions, would be able to eliminate polio from Pakistan very soon.

The prime minister, in a meeting with a delegation of Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) led by Dr Christopher Elias, Chair of Polio Oversight Board and President of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Development Division, said the government was fully resolved to purge the country of this fatal disease.

The prime minister directed the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to launch a joint awareness drive, in collaboration with the GPEI.