Tag: Polio Pakistan

February 6th, 2021; Bureau Report; LAHORE; The Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) has noted that Lahore has become the epicenter of polio transmission in Punjab, casting doubt on the efficacy of the provincial government’s anti-polio eradication program. In its 19th monitoring report, the IMB noted that Punjab had remained free of sustained wild poliovirus transmission for more than two years, until mid-2018. “Lahore has become the epicenter of this transmission, with continuous detection of positive environmental samples and periodic incidence of polio cases,” the board said. According to the IMB assessment, the suboptimal quality of anti-polio eradication campaigns in parts of Lahore, many with migrant Pashtun communities, is largely responsible. The board warned that ‘it puts Lahore at risk of becoming an endemic reservoir like other provincial capitals that reinfect other parts of the country’.