fb-pixelWHO says Pakistan city is world’s largest polio pool - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

WHO says Pakistan city is world’s largest polio pool

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s city of Peshawar is the world’s largest pool of the polio virus, with the vast majority of cases in the country and neighboring Afghanistan tracing back to the restive northwestern city, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Some 90 percent of polio cases found around Pakistan can be genetically linked to the city, the UN organization said. Even 12 of the 13 cases reported in 2013 in neighboring Afghanistan can be traced back to Peshawar, officials said, showing the challenge of combating the disease in a country where militants target vaccinators.

“If you do not take care of this reservoir it will keep threatening other parts of the country as well. Then the final eradication would be much more difficult,” said Elias Durry, who heads the WHO’s eradication efforts in Pakistan.

Advertisement



Associated Press