KARACHI, Oct 21: Four new cases of polio have recently been detected in Sindh, including one at Karachi, said Sindh Health Secretary Dr Noshad Shaikh on Saturday.

When contacted, Dr Shaikh said that the cases were suspected in children a couple of weeks back which had now been diagnosed positive for polio by the National Institute of Health, Islamabad. As such the utility and effectiveness of repeated polio campaigns under the supervision of foreign agencies can be questioned again. Health concerns are of the view that despite completion of over 52 rounds of anti-polio rounds, polio was yet to be eradicated from Sindh and Pakistan.

The health secretary said that with the latest detection of four polio cases the tally of victims reached to seven in Sindh this year. The new cases had been reported from Sukkur, Umerkot, Naushehro Feroze and Gadap, Karachi.

Earlier two cases were reported from Korangi and Gulshan-i-Iqbal in Karachi and one from Sukkur this year. As many as five confirmed polio cases were detected last year.

He doubted the overall immunisation coverage and expressed suspicion that the EDOs had not been able to check the polio drop rounds. He said that the provincial minister for health was highly perturbed over the failure of the health staffers and re-emergence of polio cases in the province and therefore he had convened a meeting of the health officers from across the province after Eidul Fitr holidays.

As far as the polio figures pertaining to the current year are concerned, Sindh has left Punjab behind it. Of the 28 confirmed cases, 11 were found in the NWFP, followed by Balochistan where eight cases were confirmed, Sindh (7) and Punjab (2) during the year.

An independent source said that anti-polio coverage had never been up to mark in the province. Against government’s claim of 80 per cent anti-polio drop coverage, a third party revealed that it was not more than 50 per cent. Some quarters believed that the campaigns had fallen prey to political lords, who obstinately worked for induction of their affiliates in the periodic polio campaign.

Experts fear that some more polio affected cases may take place in the province in coming four to six weeks.