Rise in polio cases
Sindh EOC (Polio) Coordinator Irshad Ali Sodhar visiting a recently confirmed WPV-1 positive case, a 29-month-old boy, in Hyderaba d district. The long ongoing national struggle against polio virus got another jolt, as health authorities confirmed a new case for 2024 in an eight-year-old boy living in the capital city of Islamabad, taking the country’s polio cases tally to 17, compared to total six of 2023. Reacting to the surge in polio cases, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) labelled it horrible and raised concern over the efficacy of the national polio eradication programme. The PMA stated that the massive increase in cases was a grave public health concern. Today, Pakistan is one of two leftover polio endemic countries in the world along with Afghanistan, which has reported 18 cases so far this year. The increase in polio case figures indicates that Pakistani children are not safe from contracting the dreaded virus and disease, despite continued efforts made in coordinati...