Najeeb Sawali
Disease is one of the many mirrors we can use to understand ourselves and the societies we live in. The Polio virus is one of the dangerous diseases in the world which attacks saphenous nerve cells. Moreover, the world first record in 1908 Karl landsteiner and Erwin popper discovered that polio virus was caused by virus which came from animals macaque monkeys. The first polio cases occurred in Oslo, Norway with 14 cases in 1868 and the second 13 cases in Northern Sweden 188. Furthermore, in 1988 poliomyelitis paralysed and killed hundreds of thousands people every year. Besides this, polio is highly infectious consisting of stereotypes 1, 2 and 3 horizontal transmission usually occurs via the faeco-oral, with faeco- oral contributing to the majority of cases in regions with poor hygiene and sanitation 2, 3. However, Pakistan’s polio eradication programme has come under international scrutiny due to its position as the main driver of global wild polio spread in recent years. Roughly 20,000 wild poliovirus cases were reported in Pakistan in the early 1990 but the poliovirus programme has reduced this by up to 99%. Today Pakistan continues to be affected by wild poliovirus type 1, 2. But in 2014, Pakistan became the world’s highest number of polio cases. Thus Pakistan has divided into four provinces: Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. What is more, in 2019 1 case in Punjab, 0 in Sindh, 16 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 0 in Balochistan also no cases in Gilgit Baltistan. And 2020, 25 cases in punjab, 45 cases in Sindh, 42 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 23 in Balochistan and no case in Gilgit Baltistan. Besides, 2021 1 case in Punjab, 2 cases in Sindh, 4 cases in Balochistan, 1 case Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit Baltistan no cases. Finally, Nigeria is the latest country to have officially stopped endemic transmission of wild poliovirus. And Wild poliovirus has been eradicated in all continents except Asia, and as of 2020, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries where the disease is still classified as endemic. I hope the government of Pakistan will work hard on this dangerous disease and eradicate it from the country.
