Another polio case detected, taking the toll to 22 this year

Published April 21, 2015
This year nine polio cases have been reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. -AFP/File
This year nine polio cases have been reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. -AFP/File

PESHAWAR: A new polio case surfaced on Tuesday after the Chief Minister’s Polio Control Cell in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa confirmed that an eight-month-old boy was diagnosed with the deadly virus in Peshawar.

The polio monitoring cell confirmed that eight-month-old boy named Hazrat Ghani, resident of Sheikh Mohammadi area in Peshawar, was found affected with polio virus, taking the total number of such cases detected this year to 22.

Know more: Lost — The battle against polio

This year nine polio cases have been reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six from Fata, four from Sindh and three from Balochistan. Not a single case has so far been reported from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan in 2015.

Out of the nine cases registered in KP, five have been from the provincial capital, Peshawar.

The World Health Organisation announced recently that travel restrictions imposed on Pakistanis had been extended for three months because Pakistan had been unable to stop transmission of the disease. The disease is considered to be endemic to the country.

Officials have said tens of thousands of children were missing polio eradication campaigns every year “because of the law and order situation” in the tribal areas as well as due to the unwillingness of family or parents unwilling or afraid to vaccinate.

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