Federal authorities in Pakistan confirmed the existence of the poliovirus in seven cities following the collection of sewage samples from different locations.
According to authorities, the poliovirus cases have been found in four Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cities. Testing involved gathering sewage samples from Peshawar, Bannu, Nowshera, and Swat.
Polio has also been found in sewage samples from Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Moreover, 13 confirmed cases of polio have been reported by federal authorities in North Waziristan, and one in Laki Marwat.
Pakistan confirms the existence of poliovirus in seven cities. However. the results of several other cities where environmental samples for polio were collected have yet to be released.
As Pakistan confirms the existence of poliovirus in seven cities. Earlier, the anti-polio effort was addressed during a phone conversation between Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Bill Gates and Prime Minister Shehbaz spoke over the phone and discussed Pakistan’s social and health challenges.
The Pakistani government is dedicated to eliminating the devastating disease throughout the nation, according to PM Shehbaz, who expressed appreciation for the BMGF’s assistance in the effort.
At the time, Bill Gates voiced his concerns about the rise in polio cases and pledged to continue supporting efforts to eradicate the disease from the nation.
An adult resident of suburban New York City was diagnosed with polio after experiencing paralysis a month ago, state and local health officials said on Thursday, marking the nation’s first confirmed case of the disease in nearly 10 years.
Testing suggested the Rockland County case of the highly contagious and long-dreaded virus may have originated outside of the United States, the New York State Health Department said in a statement.
“We are now surveying the family and close contacts of this individual to assess risks to the community,” Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, the Rockland County health commissioner, told a news conference, stressing that the patient was no longer contagious.
The individual, described by health officials only as a young adult – Rockland County Executive Ed Day referred to the person using male pronouns – was unvaccinated, according to Ruppert.
She said analysis by state health experts found the case originated from a strain of weakened virus used in oral polio vaccines overseas that can sometimes cause an infection and for that reason were discontinued in the United States since 2000.
In the United States, an inert polio vaccine administered in three injections provides nearly 100% immunity.
Exactly how or where the infected Rockland County resident has exposed remains under evaluation, Ruppert said, adding that the individual did not take an oral vaccine themselves.
The New York Times, citing local elected officials, said the man was a member of the Orthodox Jewish community, which was at the center of a 2018-2019 measles outbreak attributed to relatively low vaccination rates among the highly devout.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which confirmed the polio diagnosis, has said no cases of the disease have originated inside the United States since 1979.
