The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad has confirmed another case of wild poliovirus (WPV1) from Pakistan.
The lab confirmed a case of polio in a girl from Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, taking the number of cases to 50 this year.
Genetic sequencing of the virus isolated from the collected samples revealed that it was genetically related to WPV1 detected in the same district in July.
This is the second polio case from Tank and the 50th polio case in Pakistan this year.
So far, 24 cases have been reported from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 11 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
Tank is one of the polio-affected districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and has reported several positive environmental samples as well as two cases this year, indicating that the spread of poliovirus remains a threat to children. .
