ISLAMABAD: Ten more cases of polio have been confirmed by the Polio Virology Laboratory at the National Institute of Health, raising the count for this year to 184.

According to an official of Prime Minister’s Monitoring and Coordination Cell for Polio, six new cases were reported from Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), two from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two from Sindh.

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Two of the new cases have been reported from the Bannu Frontier Region – a 10-month-old boy of village Bichki Wazir and a six-month-old girl of village Zalol Khel.

From the Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, a six-month-old boy of Mera Aka Khel, village Nawz Khan Kalay; a seven-month-old girl and a 15-month-old girl of Ajab Talab, village Shin Drang; and a 12-month-old girl of Mera Aka Khel, village Gud Malang, have been confirmed as polio patients.

The cases from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are of a 48-month-old girl of Koga union council near village Bra Hujra Ambela in Buner and a 14-month-old boy of Mayar union council near village Mohammad Abad Chakaro Pul in Mardan tehsil.

In Sindh, both cases have been reported from Karachi’s Gadap area – a 12-month-old girl of UC-4 in Afghan Abadi, Moosa Market; and a 25-month-old boy of UC-5, Junjar Goth near Madina Madressah. The official said that polio eradication campaigns could not be conducted in Fata because of a ‘ban’ imposed by the Taliban in June 2012. As for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, he said, parents of the children afflicted by the crippling disease had refused to get them vaccinated.

He said a meeting of the Independent Monitoring Board on Polio (IMBP) would be held in London on Tuesday, where Pakistan would defend its case.

He said the IMBP had released on June 2 its recommendations for Pakistan in which the prime minister’s cell was declared as ineffective.

The board recommended the setting up of an ‘Emergency Operation Centre for Polio’ before July 1.

Dr Rana Safdar, National Manager of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, said the centre would be set up by mid-October.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014