PESHAWAR, Aug 20: Children continue to suffer from poliomyelitis as two new cases have been recorded in Federally Administered Tribal Areas bringing the total number of infected children to 22 this year.

“The newly-detected cases include one each from South Waziristan and Mohmand agencies according to laboratory report conducted at National Institute of Health Islamabad,” said Dr Jan Baz Afridi, head of the expanded programme on immunisation (EPI). It has brought the total number of countrywide polio cases to 69, including 26 from Balochistan, 22 from Fata, 14 from Sindh, six from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one each from Gilgit-Baltistan and Punjab while Islamabad hasn't recorded any case this year so far.

Dr Jan Baz said that South Waziristan became a newly-infected agency bringing the total number of infected areas to 28 in the country. Both the children hadn't received oral polio vaccine (OPV), he said.

Saira Bibi, the six-month-old daughter of Gul Bacha, a resident of village Jalal Kor in Khoyezai area of Mohmand Agency, was diagnosed positive for the crippling ailment as she hadn't received any OPV dose. “It is the fourth case in the volatile tribal agency this year,” he said.

Three of the positive children, aged between 6 to 23 months, hadn't received any OPV.

The area has been inaccessible owing to the child could not be administered OPV by the vaccination teams. Overall vaccination coverage remained 90 per cent, which meant that 15 to 20 per cent of the target children remained inaccessible for vaccination since early 2010.

Five-month-old Rubina Begum, the daughter of Mohammad Hussain, resident of village Karoch Khel in Ladha tehsil of South Waziristan was also tested positive for poliomyelitis. The child didn't have any OPV dose. Rubina happened to be the first polio case reported from South Waziristan agency this year.

The agency had recorded last polio case from the same tehsil in July 2010, which is inaccessible for vaccination teams since May 2009. The vaccination coverage during the 14 campaigns since January 2010 was below 90 per cent while more than 40 per cent of the target children could not be reached.

Sources in health department told Dawn that lack of vaccination had become a Herculean task for donor organisations that were pumping huge amount into the campaign.

They said that health authorities had not been able to utilise windows of opportunities to vaccinate children in the inaccessible areas. They said that close coordination with army could make a marked difference in accessing all children in Fata.

According to them, the government's commitment to eradicate the disease by end of 2011 had already failed. Not only inaccessibility but refusal by parents to administer OPV to their children is also a major hindrance in eradicating the disease.

Last year, Pakistan became the world top polio-endemic country with 144 cases that included 96 cases from Fata. Te country registered 119 cases in 2001, 90 in 2002, 103 in 2003, 53 in 2004, 28 in 2005, 40 in 2006, 32 in 2007, 117 in 2008, 89 in 2009, 144 in 2010 and 69 this year so far.

Majority of the cases during all these years had been recorded due to refusal by parents against OPV, because they thought vaccination was a ploy by the enemies to make recipients sterile and cut the population of Muslims.