KARACHI, Oct 18: Prompted by the detection of four new polio cases in a week in the province, Sindh Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed on Monday ordered an inquiry committee to specially visit Ghotki district which reported seven of the 12 confirmed polio cases for the year in Sindh.

Only on Oct 9, the federal health authorities had confirmed the detection of two new polio cases in Ghotki and Sukkur districts which took the total polio victims tally to eight in the province since January.

The total number of polio virus-infected districts/town/ turned to six during the year in the province.

The provincial manager for the Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Dr Mazhar Khamesani, told Dawn that three of the latest confirmed polio virus cases were reported in Ghotki and one in Kambar.

Sindh's four new polio cases which had been confirmed by Islamabad in two different communications in the past four to six days were included in the total of 88 cases reported so far in the country, Dr Khamesani said.

The victims of the dreaded disease in Sindh — three boys and nine girls — belong to Karachi (Gulshan-i-Iqbal town), Sanghar, Ghotki, Khairpur, Sukkur and Kambar.

One of the four cases which were made public on Monday — Shazia, a 72-month-old girl of village Attur Bullo in Ghotki district — had the onset of the disease on Sept 22. She was immunised against polio 10 times.

A 16-month-old resident of Reti Muhalla, Shahdadkot (Kambar), Sumya, was reported to be suffering from the disease since Sept 25. She had the history of two routine vaccinations and seven doses through special polio campaigns.

The third of the victims in question, a girl of 12 months, Afshan, lived in Vill Muhammad Murad Lundh of Tahsil Mirpur Mathelo of Ghotki, who had the onset of polio on October 1, and had a history of zero routine immunisation and five supplementary oral polio vaccination (OPV) doses.

The fourth case was also reported from Ghotki. Mubeena, age 13 years, who lived in Village Makhan Faqir Kalhooro, had the onset of diseases on September 26. She was given no routine immunisation vaccines but five OPV doses.

Sources privy to the polio eradication activities said that the detection of the cases in Sindh had virtually upset the national and international polio managers and planners, who were already failing to justify their positions for their reported failure to have a befitting follow-ups of the recommendations of the last meeting of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on polio.

Taking note of the alarming development, Sindh health minister on Monday said that an inquiry committee including the representatives from Unicef and WHO would go to Ghotki for a three-day visit and would stay there and examine the reasons behind the cases reported from Ghotki this year and submit their report to the provincial health department at the earliest, said a spokesman for the department.

The minister also ordered an immediate vaccination of all the children up to age of five years in Ghotki.