ISLAMABAD: The National Institute of Health (NIH) has said it has detected the polio virus type 1 (WPV1) in a male child from Jacobabad.

This latest detection takes the number of polio cases found in the year 2024 to 71.

`As the sample was collected last year, the case has been placed in the list of year 2024. This brings to five the number of cases detected in Jacobabad in 2024,` an official of the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication of NIH said on Tuesday.

`Pakistan has been responding to an intense resurgence of WPV1, with 71 cases reported in 2024. Of these, 27 have been found in Balochistan, 21 each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, and one each in Punjab and in Islamabad,` he said.

Amid the mounting number of cases, the government has intensified efforts to control the spread of the crippling disease.

The year`s first nationwide vaccination campaign is scheduled to run from Feb 3 to Feb 9.