ISLAMABAD: Three boys have been paralysed in Khyber Paktunkhwa by the crippling polio disease, taking up the current year’s tally to 36.

According to an official of the National Institute of Health, a nine-month-old boy infected with polio virus is a resident of District and Tehsil Lakki Marwat, Union Council (UC) Abdul Khel and his right upper limb was paralysed.

“A six-month-old boy, a resident of District Karak, Tehsil Takhti-i-Nasrat, UC S.G. Khel, is also infected with polio and his both lower limbs are paralysed. The third child is 19-month-old boy, a resident of District Tank, Tehsil Jandola, UC Khesarai, and his both lower limbs are paralysed,” he said.

Polio is a highly infectious disease caused by poliovirus and it mainly affects children under the age of five. The polio virus invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis and even death of a child. While there is no cure for polio, vaccination is the most effective way to protect children from this crippling disease.

Each time a child under five is vaccinated, his/her protection against the virus is increased.

Repeated immunisations have protected millions of children from polio, making almost the entire world polio free, except Pakistan and Afghanistan where polio cases are still being reported.

Pakistan is still under a polio-linked travel restriction imposed by the World Health Organisation in 2014 and since then every person travelling abroad has to carry a polio vaccination certificate.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2020