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PESHAWAR, Jul 15 (APP):In a significant public health breakthrough, all environmental samples collected from Peshawar have tested negative for the poliovirus for the first time in two years, according to Pakistan’s National Institute of Health (NIH) Polio Laboratory.
The lab confirmed that six environmental samples collected from various testing sites across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Peshawar, were free of the poliovirus. This marks a major milestone in the ongoing fight against polio, particularly as Peshawar was previously categorized as a high-risk area.
An NIH official stated that out of 24 sewage water samples collected nationwide last week, 13 tested negative while 11 came back positive.
Despite the detection of the virus in other parts of the country, the clean status of Peshawar’s samples is a promising development.
Polio-positive samples in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have decreased from 14 in January to just 7 in June, with four of these from the southern districts.
Other provinces have also shown improvement. In Balochistan, the number of positive samples dropped from 19 in January to only 4 in June.
In the Quetta block, six out of seven samples tested negative. Punjab has also seen a decline, with the number of affected districts dropping from seven to five.
Health officials are optimistic that with continued vaccination efforts and strict monitoring, Pakistan can sustain and expand this progress toward eradicating polio nationwide.