KARACHI (Kashmir English): A new polio case has been reported in Sindh’s Hyderabad district, taking the total number of reported cases this year to 27, said authorities on Monday.
An eight-month-old girl from Hyderabad has been detected with polio virus.
Nationwide polio vaccination campaign
On the other hand, the nationwide polio vaccination campaign is set to begin on October 13.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at Islamabad’s National Institute of Health (NIH) confirmed that the fresh case involved an eight-month-old girl from Sindh.
The fresh case takes the total tally of cases in Sindh to seven this year.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa tops the list with 18 polio cases, followed by Sindh’s seven cases. Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan have reported one case each this year so far.
The latest detection comes just weeks before a nationwide polio vaccination campaign set to begin on October 13 and run through October 19.
The campaign — with participation from over 400,000 workers — has a target of vaccinating around 45.4 million children across the country for protection against polio.
Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can inflict lifelong paralysis.
The only effective protection is through repeated doses of the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) for every child under the age of five.
