KARACHI: Two new polio cases were confirmed from Karachi on Thursday, raising the total number of cases in Sindh to 14 this year, officials said.
The first case was from Union Council No.8 of Gadap Town where a 10-month-old child named Omer tested positive for polio. Omer had been vaccinated for the virus once before.
Omer’s case is one of the few across Pakistan where children had been administered at least one dose of the oral vaccine but still tested positive for the crippling disease.
Omer's is the fourth case in a year from the same UC of Gadap. A day earlier, a girl named Rafia had tested positive when her samples were diagnosed by the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad.
Other than Omer, 22-month-old baby girl Hajra was the other confirmed victim of the virus from UC-7 of Orangi Town. She had never been administered polio drops.
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Most polio cases are primarily the result of non-administration of the vaccine either due to the family’s refusal or because polio volunteers are not able to reach families due to security impediments.
Sindh has recorded 14 confirmed polio cases so far this year. Except for a two-year-old child from a village of the Sanghar district in Sindh, the rest of the 13 cases have been reported from Karachi.
In 2014 alone, Pakistan’s total number of polio cases has reached 160, standing at the top of the last three polio endemic countries in the world — the other two being Nigeria and Afghanistan. In 2012, a total of 58 polio cases had been reported in Pakistan and 2013 saw as many as 93 cases.
