ISLAMABAD, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Two more children tested positive for the poliovirus in Pakistan, taking the number of infected kids to eight in the country, the National Institute of Health (NIH) said on Friday.
According to the NIH's regional reference laboratory for polio eradication, the virus was detected in samples collected from a two-year-old child and a three-year-old child from the country's Balochistan and Sindh provinces respectively.
Both children have been paralyzed, and the virus isolated from samples taken from them is genetically linked to the YB3A cluster, which has been detected in all positive cases and environmental samples reported this year, the NIH said.
This is the sixth polio case from Balochistan and the second from Sindh, the statement said, adding that the virus particularly attacks children who are malnourished and have weak immunity because of being under-vaccinated or not vaccinated for polio and other childhood diseases.
The statement quoted the country's Prime Minister's Focal Person for Polio Ayesha Raza Farooq as saying that there have been several detections of poliovirus this year and it is unfortunate that it remains a threat to Pakistani children.
"Until we eradicate this virus, no child anywhere is safe from this terrible disease," she said, adding that the government is leading the charge against polio and is implementing a rigorous vaccination strategy to improve children's immunity against the disease. ■
