Head of Anti-Polio Drive Punjab Khizar Iqbal on Thursday said that a polio environmental sample collected in July from the Rawalpindi ‘Sarae Kala’ area had tested positive. According to the report, the genetic sample was linked to the area of Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, he said and added that the ‘Sarae Kala’ area had been added to the environmental sites including two other sites of Rawalpindi Safdarabad and Dhoke Dalal in December 2022 to reinforce poliovirus surveillance and to plan response in time.
Khizar added that the polio sample had tested positive first time in Rawalpindi since September 2022 and the third sample in Punjab this year. “The positive sample in Rawalpindi indicates that the virus is circulating in the region, though no case has been reported so far”. Khizer Afzal who is also the Coordinator of Emergency Operations Center Punjab informed that the government was launching a vaccination response in the area to vaccinate every child by administering polio drops to boost their immunity against the crippling disease. “If a single case is reported in a region, it remains a threat to children residing in 200 houses in the vicinity”, he added.
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