ISLAMABAD: The number of polio cases this year reached double figures on Thursday after the National Institute of Health (NIH) confirmed that a one-year-old girl in Lahore had contracted the virus.

It was a second straight day that Lahore had reported a polio case, bringing to three the total number of cases detected in the city.

“A child who has been paralysed with the virus of the crippling disease is a one-year-old female and the virus belongs to Outfall Pumping Station,” an official of lab told Dawn.

He said that a sample from the child was collected on April 17, but as incubation period of the virus was around three weeks, confirmation came only on Thursday that the child was paralysed because of polio.

Babar bin Atta, the prime minister’s Focal Person on polio, said another polio case has been reported from Lahore due to which number of cases, for the year 2019, has reached to 10.

In reply to a question, he said community resistance was the major hurdle in achieving 100 per cent vaccination against the disease.

“People not only resist during anti-polio campaigns but they also use all kind of tactics to avoid vaccination. A similar thing happened in Peshawar during a recent anti-polio campaign,” he said.

Mr Atta was alluding to a hoax in which students of a school in Mashokhel village, near Peshawar, were shifted to Hayatabad Medical Complex last month after they claimed they had suffered an adverse reaction to polio vaccination. However, it turned out to be a ruse staged to derail the polio campaign after all the children were found to be safe. Some of the culprits have been arrested and action is being taken against them.

Mr Atta said the last report of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) had pointed out a number of flaws in the polio vaccination programme, including community resistance.

The IMB, which works on behalf of international donor agencies, prepares reports about different countries twice every year.

It had recommended imposition of travel restrictions on Pakistan in Nov 2012. The recommendation was implemented on May 5, 2014, making it mandatory for every Pakistani intending to travel abroad to take polio drops before leaving the country.

“But the government of the day, led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, did not bother to address the issue, leading to a spike in polio cases. We have to win the trust of the community if we are serious about eradicating the crippling disease,” Mr Atta said.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2019