SWABI, June 30 The health authorities have confirmed the first ever case of polio in the district during the last 10 years.

District Health Officer Dr Gul Mohammad and head of Expanded Programme on Immunisation Dr Riaz told Dawn here on Wednesday that the victim was a girl child at Baraki Afghan Refugees Camp, locally known as Gohati camp. They said that it was the first ever case of crippling disease in the district after 2000.

The victim, two-year-old Zulaikha, is daughter of Rehman Wali, a resident of Logar province of Afghanistan, who has been living in Baraki camp for the last many years.

However, officials said that their relatives from Afghanistan visited them on a number of occasions and similarly they also visited their hometown in Afghanistan.

Dr Gul said that a seven-member team, led by him, visited Mr Wali's house on Wednesday and inspected the child. In the light of their inspection, the district health office will prepare a report, which will be sent to World Health Organisation.

It has been learnt that teams of WHO from both Islamabad and Peshawar are expected to visit the area soon. They would inspect the child to know that how she contracted the infection and what possible preventive measures could be taken.

“It is a fact that vaccination of the child was carried out by the district healthy staff. The refugee camps in the district had been visited by the polio vaccination teams,” said Dr Gul.

Dr Raiz said that the left leg of the child was affected. “We want to reach the bottom line that how and why the child was attacked. The most important thing is to protect other children in the camp and elsewhere in the district,” he said.