The poliovirus found in sewage samples taken from Karachi South, Karachi Central, Jamshoro, and Hub was genetically connected to the imported YB3A genetic cluster of WPV1, according to the Regional Reference Lab for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH).
There have been 34 districts’ worth of sewage samples this year where the virus has been discovered. An official from the health ministry stated that the YB3A cluster, which vanished from Pakistan in 2021 but persisted in circulation in Afghanistan before being reintroduced through cross-border transmission last year, is present in all positive samples as well as the two human cases that were reported in 2024.
One positive sample from Pishin and three samples from various Karachi areas had been discovered the day before.
Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister, voiced optimism last Friday that Pakistan’s polio epidemic would be eradicated quickly, working with international agencies as well as domestic medical facilities.
In an encounter with a group from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), which was headed by Dr. Christopher Elias, the Chair of the Polio Oversight Board and the President of the Global Development Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the prime minister declared that the government was committed to eliminating the deadly disease from the nation.
Launching a collaborative awareness campaign with the GPEI, the prime minister instructed the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to do so.
