3-year-old boy crippled by polio was given drops at least nine times

City's first polio case confirmed from Surjani Town

KARACHI: A three-year-old boy, who was confirmed as the first polio case of Karachi this year, had been given the immunisation drops at least nine times, confirmed health officials.

Three-year-old Aijaz Khan, son of Sher Ali Khan, is suffering from the onset of paralysis. The Pakhtun family belongs to the Mohmand tribe and lives in Yousuf Goth, Surjani Town. The parents said that he had missed two oral polio vaccine doses through routine immunisation.

However, he had taken at least seven doses during supplementary immunisation activities since the child's birth and prior to the onset of his weakness, confirmed the Emergency Operation Centre, a government body working on the eradication of polio.

The EOC officials take this case as a sign of the virus being eradicated. They referred to cases in countries that have successfully tackled the polio virus to share that sometimes the virus hits weak children, who may have been vaccinated, when it is close to being eradicated. A total of 12 polio cases were reported from Sindh last year, including seven in Karachi. The Sindh government has formed the Karachi Polio Task Force, led by the commissioner, which aggressively launched drives across the city with the help of health officials, district administration and law enforcement agencies.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 9^th,  2016.