Pakistan reports three new polio cases, 2024 tally reaches 55

Highlights

Three new polio cases were reported from Pakistan on Sunday, taking the total number of active cases in the country this year to 55, the officials have confirmed.

Islamabad: Three new polio cases were reported from Pakistan on Sunday, taking the total number of active cases in the country this year to 55, the officials have confirmed.

Pakistan's massive and unending struggle to root out polio continues as the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health confirmed the detection of Wild Poliovirus Type 1 (WPV1) in three districts, including Dera Ismail Khan, Zhob and Jaffarabad.

Dera Ismail Khan, a district in the country's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported six polio cases this year. Meanwhile, the southwestern districts of Zhob and Jaffarabad have reported three and two cases, respectively, the statement said.

Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan remain the only two countries in the world where polio is still endemic.

Troubled regions, including Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have seen rejection of polio vaccination campaigns and even casualties for health workers in the past.

The World Health Organization has warned that detection of the latest cases in Pakistan is an alarming sign, putting children in several districts at severe risk.

Even though the Pakistan Polio Programme claims of conducting multiple mass vaccination drives since January 2024, many analysts have questioned the government's continued failure to handle the spread of polio virus.

It is believed that resistance to the polio immunization drive grew in the country after the US spy agency CIA organised a fake hepatitis vaccination drive to track Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, one of the most wanted terrorists in the world who was killed in 2011 during a US Navy Seals operation in Pakistan's Abbottabad.

Several religious leaders also believe that the polio vaccination drops contain traces of pork and alcohol, which is prohibited in Islam.