The National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) on Tuesday reported 50th poliovirus case in Pakistan. The new case was detected in Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
The poliovirus was found in a 20-month-old girl who is a resident of district Tank.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad has also confirmed the detection of another wild poliovirus (WPV1) case.
According to a press release issued by Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) KP on Tuesday, the lab confirmed the case from girl-child from Tank, bringing the number of cases this year to 50.
Genetic sequencing of the virus isolated from collected samples indicates it is genetically linked to WPV1 detected in the same district in July.
“This is the second polio case from Tank and 50th polio case from Pakistan this year,” the press release added.
So far, 24 cases have been reported from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 11 from KP and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
Officials said that 11 cases of poliovirus were reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Tank district is on the top.
Two cases of poliovirus and various environmental samples were found positive from Tank district.
Reporter: Babar Turk