HYDERABAD:
Environmental samples taken from three drainage pumping stations in Hyderabad for the third consecutive month have tested positive for the poliovirus.
With two more positive results reported on Monday, the tally of positive samples from Hyderabad in the first seven months of 2024 has reached 14.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, has also confirmed the detection of the virus in an environmental sample from Dadu district.
According to the lab, a sample collected on July 2 from the Qadir pumping station tested positive and has been classified as a YB3A-4B cluster, which is 99.77% genetically linked to the virus detected in an environmental sample in Karachi East on May 14.
Another sample from Latifabad Unit 9 pumping station also tested positive, classified as a YB3A-4B cluster and 99.89% genetically linked to the virus detected in a sample in Hyderabad on May 8. This month, the Islamabad-based lab has detected three positive samples in Hyderabad.
Earlier, on July 19, a report disclosed that a sample taken from Tulsidas pumping station in City Taluka on July 1 was positive. The samples from the same three pumping stations also tested positive in May and June of this year.
In response, the health department and the district administration conducted a seven-day immunization campaign in Hyderabad earlier this month, targeting 315,398 children up to five years of age. However, the authorities missed 21,411 children, with 19,245 not available at their homes and 2,176 refusal cases.
Meanwhile, a sample collected on July 2 from Masan Muhallah in Dadu district has also tested positive. This is the first positive sample from the Dadu district this year, with the previous positive sample reported nearly four years ago on December 8, 2020.
The isolated virus is classified as a YB3A-4B cluster and is 99.66% genetically linked to the virus detected in an environmental sample in Karachi East on May 14, 2024.
