Islamabad, April Pakistan has indentified a second case of polio, in a two-year-old girl from North Waziristan, after remaining a polio-free nation for about 15 months, media reports said on Saturday.
The second case emerged in less than 10 days from the same area after the first one on Aprill 22, Dawn reported, adding that the new cases have created panic among the officials concerned as the virus can travel along with people because of massive movement during Eid holidays.
Pakistan National Polio Laboratory in the capital here said that a two year old girl from North Waziristan is the new victim paralysed by the poliovirus. On April 22, a 15-month-old boy was identified with poliovirus.
The country’s army chief also spoke to Bill Gates, an American businessman and philanthropist, regarding polio eradication.
Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa held a telephone conversation with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, discussing measures related to polio eradication and Covid-19 in Pakistan.
Poliomyelitis or polio is a highly infectious viral disease that largely affects children under 5 years of age. The virus is transmitted by person-to-person spread mainly through the faecal-oral route or, less frequently, by a common vehicle (e.g. contaminated water or food) and multiplies in the intestine, from where it can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis, according to the World Health Organisation.
