PESHAWAR: Two more polio cases were registered from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata on Wednesday, taking the total number of reported polio cases in 2015 to nine.

According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister polio monitoring cell, 14-month-old baby girl Habiba from the Sher Jangi area of Peshawar and 13-month-old Shahzad from Jamrud town in Khyber Agency were diagnosed with polio virus.

So far this year, five polio cases have been registered in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three have been registered in Fata while one case was reported from Sindh.

2014 shaped up to be the darkest year for the Pakistan polio programme, with the number of confirmed cases reaching 296 — the highest number of cases reported in the country since 1998.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio remains endemic but efforts to eradicate the disease have been severely hindered in recent years as militants continue to attack immunisation teams and polio workers.

Polio cases in Pakistan reached a low of 28 in 2005 but rose to 198 in 2011. In 2012, Pakistan had 58 cases, while 93 were recorded in 2013, as reported by End Polio Pakistan.

Militant groups often attack polio teams as they see vaccination campaigns as a cover for espionage. There are also long running rumours about polio drops causing infertility.

Balochistan had been polio free for almost more than two years. However, the first polio case was reported from Balochistan's Killa Abdullah district last year in July 2014.

Refusal on the part of parents remained the underlying factor behind increasing cases of polio in Balochistan.