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Pakistan's Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the country's National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of poliovirus in sewerage lines across 12 districts of three provinces, as reported by ARY News.
ARY News reported that the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) for Polio has confirmed the presence of Wild Poliovirus Type 1 in the environment samples. According to sources referred to by ARY News, the Regional Reference Laboratory has confirmed the presence of the polio virus in samples collected from 12 districts of the country. Notably, these samples were collected from sewage lines between February 17 to 26, and the results revealed the presence of Wild Poliovirus Type 1 in several districts. Sewerage samples were found to be positive in Punjab's five districts, Balochistan's four and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's three districts. In Pakistan's Punjab province, Lahore, Multan, Kasur, Bahawalpur and DG Khan districts had polio-positive sewage. In Balochistan, Quetta, Sibi, Dera Bugti and Lasbela, and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, South Waziristan, Charsadda and Swabi, were found to have polio-positive sewage, as reported by ARY News. According to NEOC, sewerage samples were collected from 127 places across the country for polio virus testing. Earlier, Pakistan had reported six polio cases in 2025, with four reported from Sindh, one each from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab. In 2024, 74 polio cases were recorded, which when analysed further showed that one each came from Punjab and Islamabad, while 27 came from Balochistan, 22 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 23 from Sindh. As per the World Health Organisation, Polio is a crippling disease and has no cure. Pakistan is one of two countries where polio remains endemic, the other being Afghanistan. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five is essential to provide children high immunity against this crippling disease, ARY News noted. (ANI)
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