MUZAFFARGARH, Nov 23: At least 101 polio cases have been confirmed so far in Pakistan in 2008 and 29 of these are in Punjab, speakers said at a meeting on polio.

At the meeting, also attended by WHO, UNFPA and health officials on Saturday, district health officer Dr Abdul Jabbar Tahir said Pakistan had been carrying national immunisation campaigns since 1994 and the incidence of poliomyelitis decreased from thousands of cases to 32 in 2007.

WHO official Robina Aziz Jatoi said that for the first time Punjab had only one confirmed polio case in 2007 in Dera Ghazi Khan and no polio case till July 2008.

EDO Health Dr Aqeel Ahmad Khanzada said 41 cases were confirmed in NWFP, 16 in Sindh, 10 in Balochistan, 29 in Punjab and five in Islamabad. He said although Muzaffargarh district was polio-free for the last 28 months, it was in high risk situation as polio virus was circulating in neighbouring districts of Jhang, Khanewal and Bahawalpur.

An official said every campaign missed some of the children and this was the reason that polio had yet to be completely eradicated from the country.