Blow to eradication as Pakistan reports first polio case in 2024
Pakistani health authorities have detected a polio virus in a child in the country’s first case of the crippling disease in 2024, an official said on Friday, in a setback for global eradication efforts. The virus crippled the lower limbs of the 30-month-old child in the country’s south-western province of Balochistan, said doctor Shahzad Baig, chief of Pakistan’s anti-polio programme. The infection was the first case of polio virus in the region in more than two years, posing a fresh challenge for the eradication programme that is funded jointly by the UN and Gates Foundation. Polio cases in P...