KHOROG, May 13, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- No cases of polio have been registered in Gorno Badakhshan to this day, Ms. Nasrin Nekushoyeva, a chef specialist with the GBAO health directorate, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

“However, this does not mean that local residents can feel secured against this disease,” said Nekushoyeva, “Gorno Badakhshan shares a length border with northeast Afghanistan and only the 60-kilometer Wakhan Corridor separates the region from Pakistan and India, which along with Afghanistan remain polio-endemic countries.”

According to her, genetic sequencing has determined that the poliovirus found in Tajikistan is most closely related to the so-called wild poliovirus that circulated in one of northern states of India last year.  “It is possible that poliovirus cane be carried to the region by infected birds, animals or people,” the chief specialist noted.