PESHAWAR, Jan 26: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has recorded two confirmed polio cases bringing total number of poliomyelitis-affected children to five countrywide in 2012, officials said.

One-year-old Fareeha Bibi, daughter of Ayub Khan, a resident of Aziz Khan Garhi, in Mera Kachori union council of Peshawar, was tested positive by the National Institute of Health Islamabad on Thursday, officials said.

The child hadn’t received any dose of oral polio vaccine (OPV), they said.

The family of the child originally belonged to Mohmand Agency but lived in different localities of Peshawar for the past couple of years.

“The child lives in one of the 17 houses that were missed by health workers from the last 12 to 18 months,” they said.

Shazia Begum, daughter of Wazir Khan, a three-year-old child residing in jurisdiction of Urban-5 UC of Kohat tehsil was diagnosed positive for polio, the officials said. The child received only three doses of vaccines as she was missed consistently by health teams, the officials said.

Officials said the Prime Minister Polio Eradication Cell had asked the provincial government to implement the Augmented National Plan for Polio Eradication. The coverage is below 95, a target set forth in the plan, they said.

Other three cases include two from Quetta and one from Mirpurkhas in Sindh. KP accounted for 23 cases of the total 198 detected in Pakistan in 2011.

BUNER: Terming the anti-polio drive as vital to curb the virus, the district amir of JUI-F Maulana Fazali Ghafoor has called upon the ulema and parents to make the campaign a success.

Addressing a press conference at the press club in Daggar on Thursday Mr Ghafoor said polio drops were vital to protecting children from the crippling disease. He said almost all ulema in the country had supported the drive, hoping a handful of those who were opposing it would accept the reality in the larger national interest.

He recited several verses from Quran and Hadith in support of adopting precautionary measures to save children from hardships and troubles in future. He said the parents were responsible for good healthcare of their children. He said three polio positive cases had been reported in the district recently which is alarming.