KARACHI: Pakistan reported a new polio case from the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on Monday, taking the nationwide tally to 24 this year as authorities launched a fresh vaccination campaign in selected districts of the country today.
The latest case was reported from the country’s northwestern Tank district, raising the number of polio cases reported from KP this year to 16. Pakistan’s southern Sindh province has reported six cases while Punjab and northern Gilgit-Baltistan have reported one case of the infection each.
Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only protection is repeated doses of oral vaccine for every child under five, along with timely routine immunizations.
“The latest polio case involves a 20-month-old girl from Union Council Ping A, District Tank,” the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme said in a statement.
Pakistan launched a phase-wise polio vaccination campaign in 99 targeted districts across the country on Monday, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said in a statement.
