The Prime Minister of Pakistan has announced that he will chair a Extraordinary meeting of the National Pollution Force to eradicate polio after him detection of a case of the disease in the country after 15 months.
Health officials said the case was identified yesterday to a 15 month old boy in the North Waziristan region, in the northwest of the country, which paralyzed due to disease.
The last case of the disease in the country was detected in January 2021 and earlier this year the authorities had welcomed the fact that for 12 months not a single case had been registered in the country – the first time since efforts to eradicate the disease began.
Pakistan is one of two countries, along with neighboring Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic although the incidence of the disease has dropped dramatically in recent years.
With this new case in North Waziristan the total number of cases of the disease worldwide in 2022 amounts to three with one being confirmed in Malawi and one in Afghanistanaccording to data from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
The case in Malawi was confirmed in February though the symptoms of paralysis had started from November 2021, according to GPEI.
Pakistani authorities say they are working to ensure that the virus will not spread beyond the country of this South Asia.
The office of Prime Minister Sabaz Sharif announced that he would chair an emergency meeting of the national strike force on Monday.
Nigeria officially eradicated polio – caused by the wild polio virus – in 2020.
Pakistani officials announced in February that they hoped to achieve the same goal in the coming years.
In order for the disease to be officially eradicated, a country must not have had cases for three consecutive years.
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