Illness
Pakistan reports first polio case this year
A police officer in Pakistan stands guard while a child is given a polio vaccine. photo
© Muhammad Sajjad/AP/dpa
Polio could actually be eradicated through vaccination – but not in Pakistan. Another toddler falls ill.
The first known case of polio occurred in Pakistan this year. This was reported by the country’s health authorities. According to the head of Pakistan’s state-run anti-polio program has found the virus paralyzing a two-and-a-half-year-old toddler in the southwestern province of Baluchistan. The case is the first detected infection there in more than two years.
Polio is a contagious infectious disease that can cause permanent paralysis and death, especially in small children. The virus is often spread through contaminated water. There is currently no cure. The disease has been eradicated through vaccination campaigns in most countries around the world.
Pakistan is one of the few countries where diseases caused by the wild type of the pathogen still occur regularly. According to official information, six cases were detected last year, mostly in the northwest of the country near the Afghan border.
Measures to combat the spread of the virus are marred by violence in Pakistan. There are repeated attacks on vaccination teams in the country, some of them fatal. Polio vaccinations are seen by some Islamist militants as a Western tool to sterilize Muslims.