MANSEHRA, Sept 12: A polio case was detected in Torghar on Wednesday as National Institute of Health, Islamabad confirmed presence of crippling poliovirus in a 10-month-old child in the district.

The father of the affected child had refused administering anti-polio vaccine to his child in her early life, officials said.After detection of the fresh case in Torghar, the number of polio cases in the country reached to 32 during the current year. During the corresponding period last year, the country had recorded 101 polio cases.

The family of Maulana Saifullah, the father of affected child Aneesa, had lived in Karachi for some time where she did not receive any dose of the oral polio vaccine.

The family has been living in village Dheera Koh in Shadag Shagai tehsil of Torghar for the last five months. The child was affected by the poliovirus recently, according to officials.

Torghar district had remained polio-free during the last two years. The last polio case was recorded in the area during the year 2010.

“The virus has been transported from Karachi. The father of Aneesa had refused to administer polio oral drops to her baby in Karachi. The case is considered as a refusal one,” Executive District Officer (Health) Dr Mohammad Idrees told Dawn.

He said that he personally visited the family when the case was reported. He said that blood sample of the child was sent to NHA for further investigation that confirmed presence of virus in her body.

The EDO said that though it was a refusal case yet health mobile team convinced the family and administered drops to the affected child.

“The victim was not administered vaccine in her early life that affected her despite vaccination at a later stage of her life,” he said.

It would be pertinent to mention here that in late 2010, two cases of polio were detected in Torghar, when it was a provincially administered tribal area of Mansehra district.

The government had changed the tribal status of the area into a settled district in early 2011.