PESHAWAR, July 20: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has started offering free rehabilitation services to polio-affected children in the province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas, officials said.

“The government is giving free treatment and rehabilitation services to the polio-affected children to minimise their disabilities,” Dr Mahboobur Rehman, the KP focal person for disabled population, told Dawn.

The patients will undergo free treatment at the Habib Physiotherapy Complex, Hayatabad, which was recently recognised by the Post-Polio International Organisation for rehabilitation of the paralysed children. The complex, which is the first facility in the country to be placed in Post-Polio Health International Directory 2013, will also provide meals to hospitalised patients. Dr Rehman said that Pakistan had recorded 21 polio cases in 2013. Of them, 12 belonged to the Fata and five to KP. All the infected children were destined to remain handicapped for the rest of their lives, but those who would get treatment would be able to walk.

Physiotherapists will also train the parents of infected children in physical therapy who would then be asked to take care of regular exercises of their polio-hit children.

Since its establishment in February 1989, the complex has been supporting polio-affected children in their rehabilitation, he said. — Bureau Report