TOBA TEK SINGH: First suspected polio case of the current year has surfaced here in the district.

District Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Dr Masood Virk told reporters on Sunday that Manahil Bibi, two-year-old daughter of Muhammad Hussain, a resident of Chak-346 GB, Karmoonwali, was brought to the local district headquarters hospital with symptoms of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP).

He said the child’s father claimed that she had been vaccinated regularly by official polio teams.

Dr Virk said the child had been referred to the Faisalabad Children’s Hospital where doctors would send her stool samples to the National Health Institute (NIH), Islamabad, to verify whether she was actually suffering from the crippling disease.

He said usually the NIH issued polio test report 28 days after receiving the samples of a suspected patient, adding that till then the child would remain at the Faisalabad Children’s Hospital. For the last three years, Toba Tek Singh had been declared as a polio-free district.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2019