Afghan poliovirus detected again in Hangu’s environment: officials

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Polio Lab oratory at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Islamabad has confirmed the detec tion of Type-1 Wild Poliovirus in an envi ronmental sample collected from district Hangu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in May 2023, officials said on Friday. The NIH officials said the environmental (sewage) sample was collected on May 9, 2023 from the Civil Hospital – Jani Chowk, composite environmental sample collection site as well as from the tributary ‘Civil Hos pital’ district Hangu. This is one of the ad joining districts of the endemic zone of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This is the second positive environmen tal sample from district Hangu this year, the officials said, adding that previous positive sample from the district was collected in April 2023. They said the last wild poliovirus case from the district was reported in July 2019, adding that the virus found in the en vironmental sample is genetically linked to virus currently circulating in Afghanistan. It is wort