PESHAWAR, Sept 18: Two new cases of polio have been detected in the NWFP and North Waziristan Agency in September, according to World Health Organisation officials.
They said that the total number of cases detected this year in the NWFP and Fata was now eight, Dr Abdul Jabbar, team leader of the WHO’s Polio Eradication Initiative said on Monday.
The two newly-identified victims of polio were not administered anti-polio vaccines (OPVs) because of their parents’ refusal. An official in the North Waziristan Agency identified nine-month-old Abdur Rehman as one of the victims while a child, whose name could not be ascertained, in the Basikhel area of Lakki Marwat was the second one. He was diagnosed positive for polio by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad.
“His (the father of the child in Lakki Marwat) other six children had been immunised against polio, but he had refused to give the child anti-polio drops because he said he loved him and didn’t want him to become impotent,” said a health official.
In Paharkhel area of Lakki Marwat, 53 cases of parents refusing to let health officials administer anti-polio drops to their children were reported during the recent anti-polio campaign despite the area having experienced a polio epidemic only two years ago.
An official said 11-month-old Bas Bibi, daughter of an Afghan man currently residing in Arsla Mohallah of the Metakhel village of Bannu, was affected by polio in August. She had been administered six doses of vaccines.
According to Mr Khan, OPV often remains ineffective if the recipient suffered malnourishment or low immunity because of some other disease, especially diarrhoea.
In August this year, the health department confirmed the two-year-old Fazalullah, son of Khalilur Rehman, as a polio case in the same locality of the same district.
He said Fazalullah’s family had been refusing to administer OPV and during the past two years, Fazalullah had been administered anti-polio drops only once, and that too when he was out of his home with the family.