Rare polio virus detected in Pakistan

Quetta, Pakistan - Pakistan is one of just three countries in the world, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, that have endemic polio, a once-common childhood virus that can cause paralysis or death.

Pakistan began a special five-day polio immunisation campaign in the southwestern city of Quetta on Monday for children under five after a rare strain of the virus was found in sewage samples, officials said.
Pakistan is one of just three countries in the world, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, that have endemic polio, a once-common childhood virus that can cause paralysis or death.
Last year, Pakistan reported a record low of 19 cases, Ahmed said, with only one of them in Baluchistan province, of which Quetta is the capital.
The new campaign follows the detection of the rare Type 2 strain of polio in sewage samples taken by the World Health Organization in November, Ahmed said. The WHO reported the findings last week.
No cases of the Type 2 strain have been reported in humans in Quetta but it has been added to the vaccine as a precaution. The more common type of polio is Type 1, with no human cases of Type 2 reported for more than a decade.
"We have achieved major goals in combating polio disease, but still we have to strive more to declare Pakistan a polio-free country," Ahmed said.
Immunisation efforts have in the past been hampered by militants. Last January, a suicide bomber killed 15 people outside a vaccination centre in Quetta in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taleban and another militant group.

• Pakistan