Islamabad, There has been a stir with the emergence of 2 new cases of polio in Pakistan. With the emergence of these 2 cases, the number of patients suffering from this deadly infection in the country this year has increased to 41. According to the report of Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, 2 new cases of polio infection were reported on Thursday and Friday. Let us tell you that globally 24 October is celebrated as Polio Day. Both these cases reported in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces are a setback to the country's efforts to eradicate the polio virus.

A girl of about 3.5 years infected in Loralai district of Balochistan
The report said that a girl of about 3.5 years has been infected in Loralai district of Balochistan. She became a victim of polio on 8 October. The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health here confirmed this. According to the paper, this is the first case of polio in Loralai district this year. It said that the infected girl child was not given the polio preventive dose during the polio vaccination campaign. Meanwhile, the second case of polio was reported in Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the patient is a boy of about 2.5 years.

Polio is still epidemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan

According to Dawn, so far 21 cases have been reported from Balochistan, 12 from Sindh, 6 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one each from Punjab and Islamabad. In the backdrop of the rise in polio cases in the country, a campaign is being launched across the country next week to give polio doses to more than 4.5 crore children under the 'Pakistan Polio Program'. A large-scale strategy has been prepared in Pakistan to eliminate this serious disease by June 2025. According to WHO, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the countries in the world where polio is still an epidemic.