Polio virus detected in sewage lines of Pakistan provinces

The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at Pakistan’s National Institute of Health has made an alarming revelation as it detected polio virus in sewage line in all four Pakistan provinces.

According to reports, the Laboratory has confirmed that presence of virus in samples collected from 25 districts across the country.

The samples were collected between 3 and 12 of February. A Laboratory confirmed the presence of Wild Poliovirus Type 1 in several districts.

The samples were collected from 13 Sindh districts including Karachi Central, East, Keamari, Korangi, and Malir, Hyderabad, Badin, Jacobabad, Jamshoro, Mirpurkhas, Sajawal, Dadu, and Sukkur.

Similarly, samples were collected from five Balochistan districts including Quetta, Chaman, Loralai, Noshki, and Zhob, had polio-positive sewage.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three districts, including Peshawar, Dera Ismail Khan, and Lakki Marwat, were found to have polio-positive sewage.

In Punjab the virus was detected in four districts, including Lahore, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, and Gujranwala.

This development comes after six polio cases were detected in Pakistan this year. Four cases were reported from Sindh, one from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one from Punjab.

There were 74 polio cases recorded in 2024, the previous year. Of them, one each came from Punjab and Islamabad, while 27 came from Balochistan, 22 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 23 from Sindh.