Polio drops refusal: Child crippled for life by father’s negligence

QUETTA:

A new case of poliovirus was confirmed in a 25-month-old boy in Quetta’s Eastern Bypass area on Thursday, said Dr Syed Saifur Rehman, Coordinator Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) Balochistan.

“Total polio cases have reached five in Quetta and seven in the whole of Balochistan during 2015,” he said.

Alam Khan Norzai, a resident of Norzai Colony in Eastern Bypass area, an outskirt of Quetta had never got his son, Rab Nawaz Norzai, vaccinated.

Rab Nawaz, now crippled for life, owes his plight to his father who had refused to vaccinate his child. “Alam Khan used to hide his child when polio vaccinator visited his house,” official sources said quoting health volunteers that belong to the neighbourhood.

Rab Nawaz’s father told the vaccinators that he loves his child and will not vaccinate him, sources said. The child apparently caught the disease while travelling with his family last month, they said.

According to the parents, the child developed high fever along with constipation. He was first taken to a dispensary and later brought to children’s hospital. He could not stand and the
virus was suspected.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 4^th,  2015.