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New Polio Cases in Pakistan
Context
The number of polio cases in Pakistan this year has risen to 45 after two fresh cases were detected in the country's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where the debilitating virus remains endemic.
About Poliomyelitis (Polio)
- Poliomyelitis (polio) is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus.
- It invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours.
- Transmission: The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (for example, contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine.
- Initial symptoms: Fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness of the neck and pain in the limbs.
- Polio mainly affects children under 5 years of age. However, anyone of any age who is unvaccinated can contract the disease.
- Treatment: There is no cure for polio, it can only be prevented. Polio vaccine, given multiple times, can protect a child for life. There are two vaccines available (Both are effective and safe):
- Oral polio vaccine
- Inactivated polio vaccine
- Global Polio Eradication Initiative: In 1988, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution for the worldwide eradication of polio, marking the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, spearheaded by national governments, WHO, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UNICEF, and later joined by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
- Progress so far: Wild poliovirus cases have decreased by over 99% since 1988, from an estimated 350 000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries to 12 reported cases in 2023.
- Of the 3 strains of wild poliovirus (type 1, type 2 and type 3), wild poliovirus type 2 was eradicated in 1999 and wild poliovirus type 3 was eradicated in 2020.
- As at 2024, endemic wild poliovirus type 1 remains in two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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