QUETTA: Balochistan lost the status of polio-free province after a polio case was found in Qila Abdullah district.

The family of 18-month-old girl affected by the crippling disease had shifted to the area from Karachi. It was the first polio case detected in Qila Abdullah in two and a half years. The last such case was reported in November 2011.

The Balochistan government, Unicef and other relevant organisations had expressed the hope recently that Balochistan would soon be declared a polio-free province because no case had been reported over the past 18 months.

The family of Bibi Nazo had lived in Karachi for four years. They moved to union council Maizai in Qila Abdullah four months ago, according to sources.

Samples were collected when the girl’s father Abdul Qadeem informed officials about the condition of his daughter.

“The samples were sent to Islamabad for test which confirmed that the girl was affected by polio,” a senior government official told Dawn.

Ikram Junaidi adds from Islamabad: Two more polio cases have been reported in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), taking the nationwide tally to 102 so far this year.

During the same period last year only 21 polio cases were reported.

The family of 21-month-old girl Afia, who has symptoms of paralysis, lives in Dabkot area of tehsil Wana in South Waziristan Agency.

Eighteen-month-old Fatima, of Akhuntalab village in tehsil Bara in Khyber Agency, has also tested positive.

An official at the Prime Minister’s Monitoring and Coordination Cell for Polio said the issue of polio could be addressed only if the government declared a polio emergency in the country and made it mandatory for parents get their children vaccinated against the crippling disease.

“Every year count of polio cases is increasing. As many as 58 polio cases were recorded in 2012 and 93 in 2013. We are in seventh month of this year (2014) but the tally has reached 102, which shows that this year the number of polio cases will be almost twice as compared to the last year,” he said.

Senator Kalsoom Perveen of the Balochistan National Party Awami told Dawn that Qila Abdullah was near the Afghan border and people frequently travelled from Pakistan to Afghanistan and vice versa.

“Almost 100 per cent people who live in the area are Pashto-speaking and they have the tendency to refuse vaccination teams. They even prefer to have their babies delivered at homes instead of hospital,” she said.

She regretted that there was a huge problem of electricity in the area and because of this it was almost impossible to maintain a cold chain of vaccines. Moreover, polio teams cannot reach some areas because of security issues.

“I believe that polio campaigns can succeed only with the involvement of local people,” Ms Perveen said.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2014