PESHAWAR, June 8: The NWFP has confirmed a new case of polio, bringing the total number of such cases in the province to three this year.

An official associated with the anti-polio campaign in the province said: “We have found

a three-and-a-half-year-old

girl, Waheeda, who is suffering from polio and who lives in the Akora Khattak refugee camp in the Nowshera district.”

He said the child had been given 15 doses of the anti-polio vaccine — called OPV — during the National Immunisation Day campaign against the crippling disease, adding that she had also been given some doses under the routine Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI).

He said Waheeda’s was the second case of polio from the Nowshera district this year.

The official was of the view that the virus was similar to those found in polio-affected children of Kandahar, Quetta and the Khyber Agency. The child’s parents had moved from the camp to some other place but had returned to the camp a year ago.

He said the first polio case of the year was reported in February when a 10-month-old-child, Abdul Saleem, of the Rashakai village in Nowshera district was diagnosed with polio.

He said the child’s family had shifted to the village from the Bajaur Agency and its members often visited the tribal area.

He remarked: “The Bajaur Agency reported four of the 15 polio cases detected in the NWFP and the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas in 2006.”

He said the second case was detected in the Khyber Agency. An eight-month-old Afghan boy, Hasanullah (son of Merajuddin), had been diagnosed with polio at a refugee camp in Tirah, Khyber Agency, in March.

He said the child had received only two doses of OPV during the National Immunisation Day campaign. However, he had not been given any OPV during the routine EPI.

He said the child hailed from the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan and frequently travelled there with his parents. Citing laboratory reports, he said the child had carried the virus from Afghanistan.