LAHORE, Nov 26: Punjab Health Services Director-General Dr Yaqoob Jaffar has claimed that some 28 confirmed polio cases have been detected in the province till the third week of November this year.

In total 83 confirmed polio cases have so far been reported from all over the country, the DG said in a handout.

Out of the 28 cases in the Punjab, 22 cases were reported from Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Muzaffargarh and Rahim Yar Khan districts, bordering Sindh and Balochistan provinces.

Dr Jaffar also claimed that 25 districts of the province had been declared polio-free.

The DG said nine polio cases were reported from Dera Ghazi Khan, eight from Rajanpur, three from Muzaffargarh and two from Rahim Yar Khan.

He said that the health department had sent stool samples of some 600 children for suspicion of the diseases. Laboratories have so far confirmed 28 polio cases all over the province.

In the year 1999, 144 polio cases were reported from the Punjab, while the number of these cases had reduced to 54 last year.

The DG said that at present the disease had been cornered to inter-provincial bordering areas.

In order to check these cases and take appropriate measures, he said, the Punjab health department in collaboration with the three other provinces had developed a plan last month to check inter-provincial cross-border polio transmission.

The health department had established 16 inter-provincial cross-border check-posts to vaccinate children travelling by trains, buses and other modes of transport.

He said the health department had also vaccinated children at these check posts during the three-day national immunization campaign from November 6.

He said the health department was also in the process to recruit 92 vaccinators to be permanently posted at the 16 check-posts.