Pakistan’s health authorities have confirmed six more cases of polio, taking the number of infected children to 39 this year, and prompting a senior official to warn that this was “a wake-up call” to the public.
Prior to the latest surge in infections, Pakistan was on the verge of eradicating the disease. The country recorded only six cases in 2023, after 20 in 2022 and just one in 2021.
Resistance to vaccination has emerged as a key health risk. According to the BBC, hardline clerics and militants have campaigned against vaccination, falsely claiming it is a Western conspiracy to sterilise Muslims. As a result, many communities avoid getting inoculated.
Polio, an infectious disease that causes crippling paralysis among young children, has been virtually eliminated globally after decades-long vaccination drives, the BBC reports.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last remaining countries where polio is still endemic. There is no cure for the disease, and paralysis caused by an infection is irreversible.
The new cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) included three in Balochistan, two in Sindh province and one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Ayesha Raza Farooq, Pakistan Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication, is quoted as saying: “This should be a wake-up call for all parents and communities.
“Every paralytic polio case means there are hundreds of children who are silently affected by poliovirus and are potentially carrying and spreading it throughout their communities.”
The World Health Organization has reported at least 18 polio cases in neighbouring Afghanistan this year.
According to the BBC, Pakistan is launching a nationwide polio vaccination campaign this month vaccinate more than 45 million children under the age of five against paralytic polio. The country’s total population is 240 million.