Poliovirus found in nine more environmental samples across country

ISLAMABAD: The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad has confirmed the detection of Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) in nine environmental (sewage) samples collected in February 2024, two each from districts Peshawar, Quetta and Chaman, and one each from districts Karachi South, Karachi Korangi and Mastung, officials said on Wednesday.

Polio eradication initiative officials said in Karachi, environmental samples were collected from the ‘Manzoor Colony’ environmental sample collection site in the district East and ‘Korangi Nala’ environmental sample collection site in the district Korangi.

In Peshawar, the environmental samples were collected from the ‘Shaheen Muslim Town’ environmental sample collection site and ‘Larama’ environmental sample collection site.

In Quetta, the environmental sample was collected from ‘Tawoos Abad’ ‘Surpul’ environmental sample collection site.

In Chaman, the environmental sample was collected on February 21, 2024 from the ‘Hadi Packet’ environmental sample collection site, which is the third positive sample from district Chaman this year. The isolated virus is classified as YB3A cluster and 99.77 percent genetically linked to the virus detected in an environmental sample in the same district (Chaman) on October 16, 2023.

The second environmental sample in Chaman was collected on February 21, 2024 from the ‘Army Kaziba’ environmental sample collection site, which is the fourth positive sample from district Chaman this year. The isolated virus is classified as YB3A cluster and 99.77 percent genetically linked to the virus detected in an environmental sample in the same district (Chaman) on October 16, 2023.

In Mastung, the environmental sample was collected on February 21, 2024 from the ‘Adalat Road’ environmental sample collection site, which is the first positive sample from district Mastung this year. The previous positive sample from the district was collected on December 19, 2023. The isolated virus is classified as YB3A cluster and 99.66 percent genetically linked to the virus detected in an environmental sample in Chaman on October 2, 2023.

These new detections take the total number of positive environmental (sewage) samples for WPV1 in Pakistan in 2024 to 65.