KARACHI: Another polio case was detected in Sindh on Monday, bringing this year’s total number of polio cases to 27 in the province and 247 in the country.

According to Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) officials, four-month-old Sumaira, daughter of Qadir Bakhsh, a resident of Bakhsh Bakhrani village in Shikarpur, was diagnosed with polio. No polio vaccine was given to her.

Twenty-three of the 27 polio cases in Sindh have been reported in the suburbs of Karachi this year.

According to a recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report, Pakistan is responsible for nearly 80 per cent of polio cases reported globally.

“The situation is primarily due to a lack of access to children for vaccination, largely owing to a continuing ban on immunisation imposed by militants in North and South Waziristan, and insecurity and killing of polio workers in the field,” said a progress report.

Published in Dawn, November 25th , 2014