According to an NEOC official, one each case was reported from Bannu, Waziristan and Hangu in KP, and two from Hyderabad, Sindh.
He said with addition of five new cases, the figure of confirmed polio cases reached 58 for the current year, out of which 44 were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including 32 from Bannu division.
The official said the polio virus situation in the KP was alarming and the government had planned to start polio immunization drive in 26 districts of the province from Monday.
He said the cause behind having polio virus in Bannu was refusal of polio vaccination to their children by parents. After confirmation of polio virus, the parents accepted that they had refused the vaccination for their children on wrong propaganda, he added.
The official said the extensive environmental surveillance established by the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme had detected the poliovirus from sewage of 10 cities during last month.
According to the results shared by the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), the presence of poliovirus was confirmed in sewage samples collected from Faisalabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Sukkur, Killa Abdullah, Quetta, Dera Ismail Khan, Peshawar and South Waziristan.
Considering the associated risks, the country programme had urged the parents to ensure immunization of all children under the age of five years during the polio campaigns, he added.
He said, “Polio eradication is a delicate time race between parents and health-care workers, and a deadly poliovirus. We have to collectively ensure that we reach all children with multiple doses of vaccination before this dangerous poliovirus found in the sewages of these towns reach unprotected children.”
He said the programme was focusing on children who missed vaccination because on any reason and let the virus survive no longer. The continued presence of poliovirus in the sewage of major cities posed risks to all vulnerable and unprotected children across Pakistan, he added.
The official said polio was a highly infectious disease caused by poliovirus mainly affecting children under the age of ten years. "It invades the nervous system, and can cause paralysis or even death."
He added while there was no cure for polio, vaccination was the most effective way to protect children from the crippling disease. "Each time a child under the age of five is vaccinated, their protection against the virus is increased."
He said repeated immunizations had protected millions of children from polio, allowing almost all countries in the world to become polio free.