August 21, 2008	Thursday	Sha'aban 18, 1429

PESHAWAR, Aug 20: Two children have tested positive for polio in Charsadda district, taking to 14 the number of such cases in the NWFP and Fata this year.

Health officials said on Wednesday that the afflictions had been confirmed by the National Institute of Health in Islamabad. They said that 10-month-old Haris Khan of Najeemabad had received four doses of oral polio vaccine (OPV). But his family has been refusing the OPV since March and the officials fear that two other children could also get infected.

In Gujjar Qilla, three and a half years old Amina Bibi was diagnosed positive for the disease despite having received 14 doses of OPV. Although she had no symptoms of the disease, polio virus was found in samples of her stool.

With the two cases, the number of polio cases detected in the country this year has risen to 33 — 14 in NWFP, 12 in Sindh, two in Punjab, four in Balochistan and one in Islamabad.—Bureau