Poliovirus has been confirmed in two children of Punjab, the Punjab Polio Programme confirmed in a statement issued in Lahore on Thursday.

“A child from Lahore aged 54 months has been diagnosed with polio. While a child from Okara aged 168 months has also been diagnosed with polio,” said the statement.

Punjab remains in the grip of wild poliovirus which has paralysed 12 children in the province in 2019.

“Punjab is the largest province with an effective surveillance system and the presence of a huge migrant population from reservoir districts increases the fear of virus transmission across the country if we are not able to eradicate polio from Punjab,” said Ms Sundas Irshad, head of the polio programme in Punjab.

Ms Irshad assured parents that the polio vaccine was safe, efficacious, and approved by the government’s drug regulatory authorities. She emphasised the need for all children to be immunised during every round of immunisation campaign days.

“In a major success in the ongoing national polio eradication drive, the Punjab polio programme has vaccinated over 19.95 million children in the first three days. In order to save more children from permanent paralysis we need to carry the same momentum in the remainder of the low season campaigns till June”, Ms Irshad added.

“The provincial government is fully committed to the task and is in the process of putting in mechanisms to reach all the missed children and children on the move,” the polio chief said.

During 2016 and 2018, no polio case was reported in Punjab. While in 2015 as many as seven polio cases were reported from the province.

Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are the three countries left globally which are still endemic.