PESHAWAR, Feb 8: The NWFP health department has detected the first polio case of 2007 in the province.

A 10-month-old child, Abdul Saleem, of Rashakai village in Nowshera district has been diagnosed with polio at the National Institute of Health, Islamabad.

“It has not been officially communicated to us as yet but it is a confirmed case of polio,” said a World Health Organisation official. He said the child’s family had shifted to the village from Bajaur Agency and its members visited the tribal area often.

“Bajaur Agency recorded four of the 15 cases recorded in the NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in 2006. Genetic mapping is yet to be carried out but it’s possible that the child might have got the infection from there,” said an official.

The Deputy Director of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), Dr Waheed Khan, said the child had received six doses of oral polio vaccine.He said the child had not received vaccine on the two National Immunisation Days because he had been gone to Swabi district.

He said a vaccination campaign would be carried out in the union council in Swabi where child had missed the vaccine.

Dr Khan said that the child’s relatives were based in Mamoon tehsil of the Bajaur Agency where the vaccination coverage was satisfactory.

He said Sindh had so far recorded two polio cases during the current year.