ISLAMABAD: Polio cases continue to emerge even as 2024 nears an end, taking the total number of cases this year to 63, officials have confirmed.

The newest victims, from Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, included three girls and an 11-year-old boy.

The number of cases reported in 2024 is over ten-fold compared to last year, when only six cases were reported from across the country.

According to an official of the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), the cases have been reported from Dera Ismail Khan, Tank and Jacob­abad, where female children have been affected, and Sukkur, where the victim was a male child.

“This is the ninth polio case from D.I. Khan, third from Tank and Jacobabad and first from Sukkur this year,” he said.

When asked about the details of the victims, he said a 33-month-old girl from Sherani tribe was infected in Darazinda tehsil of D.I. Khan.

The victim from Tank is a 48-month-old girl, a 36-month-old girl from Thull tehsil of Jacobabad and an 11-year-old boy from Sukkur.

When asked how an 11-year-old child has been infected with polio, as usually under-five children are infected with the disease, the official said that the victim’s mother reported frequent episodes of diarrhoea.

“Children suffering with some chronic dise­­ase or comorbidity remain vulnerable to the crippling disease,” he said.

Of the 63 cases reported so far this year, 26 were from Balochistan, 18 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 17 from Sindh and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2024