June 20, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 15, 1429

QUETTA, June 19: A new case of polio has been detected in a village near Chaman town in Qila Abdullah district.

“A two-year-old boy was found infected with polio virus,” Dr Aurangzeb Kamal, project officer the Polio Programme in Balochistan, told Dawn on Thursday.

Provincial health officials collected stool sample of Zahoor and sent it to the National Institute of Health (NIH) laboratory.

“The NIH conducted Eliza test that confirmed the boy is suffering from polio,” Dr Kamal said, adding that it was the first polio case detected in the province over the past six months. Three polio cases were detected in 2007.

Fourteen confirmed cases of polio have been detected in the country over the past six months, including seven in Sindh.

“Most of the polio cases have been detected in Balochistan’s border districts near the Afghan border,” he said.

“The boy’s father refused to allow the medical team to administer polio drops to his son,” Dr Kamal said.