Polio continues to be a daunting challenge

HYDERABAD:

The presence of polio virus in the environmental samples collected from districts in Hyderabad and Jamshoro continues to remain a daunting challenge for the health authorities and the district administrations. The 12th sample has been tested positive in the former district since January this year and fifth in the latter.

Three samples each taken from Hyderabad in the months of May and June had also tested positive. The authorities had conducted a seven-day immunization campaign earlier this month. However, the results did not appear much reassuring as against the target of 315,398 children of up to five years of age, some 21,411 children could not be immunized. These included 19,245 children who were not available at their homes while there were 2,176 refusal cases. The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health Islamabad on Saturday confirmed the detection of polio virus in the environmental samples taken from Hyderabad and Jamshoro on July 1 and July 2, respectively.

According to the report, an environmental sample collected on July 1 from Tulsidas Pumping Station in Hyderabad has been tested positive. "This is the 12th positive sample from Hyderabad this year," the report said.

The isolated virus was classified as YB3A-4B cluster. It is 99.89% genetically linked to the virus detected in an environmental sample in Karachi East on January 11 this year.