Not A First: Polio virus found in sewage sample

HYDERABAD: Sewage samples taken from a main drainage pumping station in Hyderabad have shown presence of the polio virus. The samples were taken in December, 2015, according to the polio focal person Dr Usman Chachar, whose office received the report on Monday from the virology lab of the National Health Institute in Islamabad. The samples were collected from Tulsidas pumping station in downtown Hyderabad. Dr Chachar said the monthly tests until November, 2015 had not shown any presence of the virus. He added that the virus has also been detected from at least two sites in Karachi including Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Rashid Minhas Road. Experts link the recurring discoveries to the constant flux of migrants from rural Sindh and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Many samples taken from the Tulsidas pumping station in the past several years have been found to contain the virus.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2016.