QUETTA (6 AM Report): The polio case count has increased to 23 in Balochistan during the current year as another case of polio has been reported from Killa Saifullah district on Tuesday.
According to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of another wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case in the country.
The lab confirmed detection of the virus in a male child hailing from Killa Saifullah district of Balochistan, bringing the number of total cases in Balochistan this year to 23 and in country to 46.
It may be mentioned here that this is the second polio case from Killa Saifullah, where several environmental samples have tested positive for WPV1. With this, so far, 23 cases have been reported from Balochistan province, 12 from Sindh, nine from KP and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
Earlier, six cases of polio had been reported from Killa Abdullah with three cases reported from Quetta and two each from Chaman, Pishin, Zhob and one each from Dera Bugti, Chaghai, Jhal Magsi, Kharan, Noshki and Killa Saifullah.
Needless to mention here is that a full fledged anti-polio campaign was run in the province recently.
According to the sources of Emergency Operation Center, it was targeted to vaccinate over 2.65 million children against polio virus in the province. However, 99 percent target of the immunization was achieved in the province.