LAHORE: With another polio case surfacing in Lahore, the total number of such cases across Pakistan has touched 9.
According to details, the victim was identified as a 10-year-old boy who was a resident of Allama Iqbal Town. “Samples were collected on April 2 and sent to Islamabad for confirmation. The virus belongs to an Outfall Pumping Station in Lahore,” an official at polio laboratory of the National Institute of Health said.
Efforts to eliminate polio in Pakistan have become complicated in recent years, as polio workers have faced attacks by militants who say the health teams are Western spies, or that the vaccines they administer are intended to sterilise children.
Polio is endemic in only three countries in the world although a relatively rare strain was also detected in Papua New Guinea at the end of last year.
Polio is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis within hours. It mainly affects children under the age of five.
