Another child has been crippled by poliovirus in Karachi’s Gadap Town, increasing the number of cases this year to six in Pakistan, The News reported citing health officials on Sunday.
“A 31-month-old boy has been affected by Wild Poliovirus 1 in the notorious UC-4 Gujro, Gadap Town in District East Karachi. It is the 5th polio case of 2023 in Pakistan and the 2nd case in Karachi,” an official of the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Sindh said.
The official maintained that the latest polio case had been reported from the same area in Gadap Town where the fourth polio case of the year was reported last month. He added that the fifth child who has been affected by the polio is an Afghan national.
He maintained that genetic sequencing of the isolated virus was under way but no travel history of the child had emerged. He added that an intensive investigation had been launched to ascertain the circumstances that led to a resurgence of the poliovirus in Karachi.
It is worth mentioning here that most of the polio cases in Karachi have been reported from the same UC-4 Gujro, Gadap Town, which has been a hub of Afghan nationals who regularly travel to their native areas in Afghanistan from there.
