Pakistan records spike in new polio cases, hampering efforts to make the country polio-free

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan has witnessed a spike in new polio cases since March, officials said Wednesday, in a troubling sign as the government seeks to eradicate the disease in the country.

The nation has recorded 32 new cases since March, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.

Haq expressed optimism that the situation will improve in the coming months after Pakistan launches a new nationwide anti-polio campaign starting Oct. 28 that aims to vaccinate 32 million children.

“We are conducting joint case investigations, preparing to implement high-quality vaccination rounds and providing high-risk communities with integrated health services to build children’s immunity,” he said.

Pakistan regularly launches polio campaigns despite attacks on workers and police assigned to inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

Most of the new polio cases were reported in the northwest and in southwestern Balochistan province bordering Afghanistan where the Taliban government last month suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are two countries where the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped.

Pakistani officials say the Afghan decision will have major repercussions for other countries.

Pakistan’s anti-polio campaigns are supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has pledged $1.2 billion to the effort to end polio worldwide.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s focal person for polio eradication, Ayesha Raza Farooq, urged parents to ensure their children are vaccinated.

She said the spike in new cases “should be a wake-up call for all parents and communities” and that children were being put at risk because of “misperceptions about the vaccine.”

The latest spike in cases came weeks after a polio worker was raped during an anti-polio campaign in the southern Sindh province. Police say the men behind the assault have been arrested.