ISLAMABAD: The Polio Virology Laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH) has reported three new polio victims, taking the number of cases detected so far this year (2015) to six.

The first cases of the new year were reported from Tank and Lakki Marwat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

But an official of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) told Dawn, on condition of anonymity that the new cases had been reported from Nowshera, South Waziristan and Qambar-Shahdadkot in Sindh.

Take a look: KP, Fata residents comprise 96pc of polio victims this year

“In all three cases, the patients are infected with the P1 virus, which can be transmitted directly from child to child,” he said.

In 2014, Pakistan reported as many as 305 polio cases, breaking its own 16-year-old record. The official said that due to the increasing number of cases, the health departments had to face embarrassment at both national and international forums.

“We have failed miserably in eradicating the polio virus from our country. Even though we try to blame the security situation in the country for this, it is a fact that the Pakistani strain of the poliovirus was exported to Syria in 2013,” he said.

Pakistan’s performance worse than war-torn Syria

“According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as many as 38 children were affected in Syria. Even though the country has been in the throes of a civil war, they still managed to launch a massive vaccination campaign and inoculated 27 million children,” he said.

“The last polio case in Syria was reported in Jan 2014, and after that not a single case has been reported. If a war-torn country like Syria can control polio, why can’t Pakistan do it too? It is clear that there is no political will to eradicate the virus. Health departments are more interested in issues other than eradicating polio,” he said.

However, the head of the Polio Emergency Operations Centre, Dr Rana Safdar, was optimistic about 2015 and said this year would see far less cases than 2014.

“The six cases that have been reported in 2015 are last year’s cases. Most of the cases in 2014 were reported from KP and Fata, but neither the federal nor the KP government are accepting responsibility for them,” he said.

“Under the recently formed alliance ‘Sehat Ka Ittehad’, however, it has been decided that Fata and KP will be considered one bloc and it will be the joint responsibility of both governments to ensure vaccination in all areas,” he said.

Published in Dawn January 31st, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play