PESHAWAR: The National Emergency Operations Centre, Islamabad, on Friday notified a polio case from Bajaur tribal district.

According to a statement issued here on Friday by coordination unit tribal districts, Emergency Operations Centre, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the National Institute of Health had isolated wild poliovirus from stool sample of a 30-month-old child of Sheikhan village of Salarzai tehsil in Bajaur.

Sample from the child was collected on Dec 27, 2018, to check the presence of poliovirus. The lab test isolated wild poliovirus from stools and confirmed it to be polio case.

The total count of polio cases in tribal districts during 2018 reached four and sixth in the province.

The family of the child had recently moved from Balochistan to Bajaur around a month before the date of onset (when child got paralysed because of poliovirus).

Due to misconception held by the unfortunate family that vaccine causes sterility, the parents had been refusing the child’s vaccination during anti-polio campaigns in Balochistan for last 28 months, the statement said.

The family reached Bajaur after the November campaign, and since it was on the move in the tribal district the child missed the December campaign as well.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2019