KP reports five type 2 polio cases

PESHAWAR: Five more polio cases of type-II surfaced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, officials said.

With the latest polio cases, the number of type-II cases in KP reached eight in 2020. According to officials of the Health Department, four polio cases of type-II were reported from Khyber tribal district while one case surfaced in Nowshera district. In KP, out of eight polio cases of type-II, five cases reported from Khyber tribal district, and one each from Bajaur, Nowshera and Peshawar.

In 2019, KP had reported 16 type-II polio cases. In Nowshera, an Afghan refugee child Bilal Ahmad was diagnosed with type-II polio in Khairabad refugee camp. There are three wild types of poliovirus (WPV) – type 1, type 2, and type 3. These new viruses are called vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPV) and can cause polio disease.

After wild poliovirus type 2 was declared eradicated in 2015, the world switched from trivalent to bivalent OPV. Officials said that after eradication of type 2 virus or VDPV, the vaccine was stopped in April 2016 in Pakistan.

It again surfaced in 2019 and affected 16 children in KP and 22 in Pakistan. Out of five type 2 cases in KP, one polio case of type 2 was reported from Rawalpindi. Experts said type 2 didn’t cause paralysis.