Viral Etiology and Incidence of Acute Gastroenteritis in Water Bodies of Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Pakistan

Water contaminated with microbe’s causes about 6,000 deaths of adults and children every day. According to the World Health Organization, diarrhea is responsible for the deaths of 1.8 million people every year around the world. In Pakistan around 30% to 40% of all reported diseases and deaths are due to poor water quality. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is rather worst due to being amongst the backward and poverty stricken areas. In 1988, the World Health Assembly adopted the goal of global eradication of poliovirus by the year 2000. Polio remains endemic only in three countries i.e. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. In the past, Pakistan has fought polio strongly but progress is now disappointing. Its progress lags far behind every other country in the world. It was the only endemic country to show an increase in cases in 2014. The greatest challenge lies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Peshawar. Population has substantially increased in Peshawar due to which it is unable to carry all the sewage water from the inner part of the city. Thirty drinking and sewage water samples with volume of 1liter were collected from different areas of Peshawar. The samples were analyzed through PCR technique for the detection of enteric viruses especially polio virus, rotavirus, adenovirus, hepatitis A virus and enterovirus. Although no sample of drinking or sewage water is found to be contaminated by polio virus but results show the presence of other enteric viruses i.e. rotavirus (6.66%), adenovirus (13.33%), HAV (10%) and enterovirus (20%) in the samples. The social impacts were also studied and the results revealed top challenges faced by polio workers i.e. security threats, inaccessible areas and interruption by the community during vaccination campaigns.