Type-3 polio virus case in Pakistan raises concerns of disease spreading, WHO says

Pakistan has reported the first case of the type-3 wild polio virus in six months, raising concerns that the disease may spread to other parts of Asia and beyond, the WHO said on Thursday, Bloomberg/San Francisco Chronicle reports. "Confirmation of continuation of WPV3 transmission in tribal areas of Pakistan has significant implications for the global effort to eradicate WPV3, particularly as Asia is on the verge of eliminating circulation of this strain," the WHO said on its website.

"Nine out of 10 of this year's polio cases were caused by type-1, which the WHO says is the most pervasive strain of poliovirus. Type-2 has been eliminated in the wild, with the last cases detected in India in 1999. Type-3 is localized in northern India, northern Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the U.N. agency says," the news service writes (Wadhams/Gale, 7/8).