ISLAMABAD: A polio case was confirmed on the first day of New Year on Thursday, taking the tally reported over the past 11 months to 296.

According to a statement issued by the Ministry of National Health, the new patient is Mohammad Shafi, an infant belonging to Chagai district in Balochistan.

Prime Minister’s Focal Person on Polio and MNA, Ayesha Raza Farooq, while talking to Dawn hoped the trend would soon witness a positive change as a well-coordinated action was under way. She said all stakeholders were attending the Emergency Operation Centre on Polio for maximum coordination to check spread of the crippling disease.

“Effective coordination among health department and UN agencies will help address the issue,” she said.

Our Staff Correspondent in Quetta adds: The new case has been detected in a border village close to the Pak-Afghan border in Chagai district. With the detection of the fresh case the total number of polio victims in the province reached 23.

“In the year 2014, twenty-three cases were reported in six districts of Balochis­tan,” said Mr Babar, an official of the World Health Organisation in Islamabad.

Balochistan Health Minister Rehmat Saleh Baloch asked the Director General, Health, to submit a report about polio cases in Chagai.

The minister said he had directed the authorities concerned to ensure an effective polio eradication campaign so that no new case was reported from across the province. “No negligence will be tolerated in making the anti-polio campaign successful,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2015