PESHAWAR: The National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has confirmed four more polio cases in Federally Administered Tribal Areas and one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, officials said on Sunday.

They said that three children from North Waziristan Agency and one each from Khyber Agency and Peshawar had tested positive for poliomyelitis.

They said that with the fresh cases the number of affected children had now climbed to 24 in Fata and seven in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Besides, Sindh has four cases and Punjab one of the nationwide 36 in 2013 so far.

The Taliban’s ban on oral polio vaccine since June 2012 has left crippled 17-month-old Nabila, daughter of Sher Khan and resident of village Star Sarobai Mussaki village in Razmak tehsil, as she remained without vaccination.

Another new polio victim 13-month-old Sabila, daughter of Imtiaz, is residing in Alikhel village of Mir Ali tehsil, and she also never received polio vaccine. Seven-month-old Maria, daughter of Matiullah and belonging to Zeraki Dak Khana village in Mir Ali, was also tested positive for polio virus. She also remained unvaccinated due to the Taliban ban. North Waziristan and Khyber Agency each have so far recorded 10 polio cases each.

The Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Fata, is finding it hard to reach children due to law and order situation. Bajaur Agency has recorded two polio cases this year so far and FR Bannu and FR Dera Ismail Khan one each.

The officials said that one and a half months old Farman, son of Shah Duran and resident of Zakhakhel tehsil in Khyber Agency, also didn’t receive any dose of vaccine and was tested positive for poliovirus.

They said that Peshawar recorded the second polio case of the year when authorities confirmed presence of poliovirus in a six-month-old child Qurban Ali, son of Rohullah, a resident of union council Surezai Payyan. He didn’t get vaccine.

Last year, the World Health Organisation had declared Peshawar as a polio reservoir, transmitting the virus to children in other parts of the country. It had been warned then that children below five years of age visiting the city with their mothers risked the disease.

The officials said that Peshawar, which also hosted displaced families from Fata, especially from nearby Khyber Agency due to military operation, risked existence of the virus in water.

They said that the EPI had been working on strategies to do away with about 7,000 refusal cases against the OPV recorded in Peshawar. They said that defiant parents would be reached through local elders, notables and politicians to convince them that OPV was meant to protect their children from being crippled.

The officials said that the parents must administer polio vaccines to their children in every campaign till they attained the age of five years. They said that the health department was carrying out the scheduled campaign of immunisation to ensure that the disease was eradicated by end of next year.

Authorities in Fata have devised a plan to vaccinate children, but about 150,000 of them who lived in North Waziristan were still vulnerable to the infection. They said that they had been running campaign in some conflict areas in coordination with the army to ensure that children were immunised.