Sewage samples from seven Karachi localities test positive for poliovirus

Poliovirus was detected in samples taken from Sohrab Goth, Gadap Town, Saddar, PIDC, Haji Mureed Goth and Liaquatabad

ISLAMABAD: Environmental samples from seven different locations in Karachi have tested positive for poliovirus, reported Express News.

Poliovirus was detected in sewage samples taken from Sohrab Goth, Gadap Town, Hijrat Colony, Saddar, Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), Haji Mureed Goth and Liaquatabad.

Pakistan’s polio eradication campaign has hit serious problems with an alarming spike in reported cases that have raised doubts over the quality of vaccination reporting and prompted officials to review their approach to stopping the crippling disease.



The country is one of only three in the world where polio is endemic, along with neighbouring Afghanistan and Nigeria, but vaccination campaigns have cut the disease sharply, with only a dozen cases last year compared with 306 in 2014 and more than 350,000 in 1988, according to Pakistani health officials.

The stubborn hostility against the polio health workers and the high levels of avoidance underline the problems with heavy-handed repeat visits by them and police going after families that refuse vaccination.

In October, the Independent Monitoring Board, which oversees the global polio eradication effort, wrote in its annual report that there was “something seriously wrong with the programme in Pakistan”.

In April, fuelled by rumours on social media that children were being poisoned by the vaccinations, mobs rioted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and at least three polio workers were killed.