PESHAWAR:
Despite being administered regular vaccination drops, a child tested positive for polio in Swabi district on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 30.
Five-year-old Adil, son of Gohar, a resident of Palrrah Kalay village of union council Kalu Khan, is said to have been administered anti-polio drops during all the campaigns conducted in the five years of his life.
“We sent some tests to the National Institute of Health in Islamabad two weeks ago, after suspecting he had polio as both his legs are paralysed and he walks with a lot of difficulty,” Dr Raiz Ali, Swabi district coordinator of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), told The Express Tribune.
He confirmed that the child was administered the vaccine, adding that they were investigating the surrounding areas of his house to figure out how he contracted the virus.
EPI Deputy Director Dr Janbaz Afridi also confirmed that Adil had been administered anti-polio drops.
“I can confirm the surfacing of the new case, but it will take some time to figure out whether the polio teams failed to reach the area or there was another reason for the contraction,” Prime Minister Secretariat Polio Eradication Cell spokesman Mazhar Nisar told The Express Tribune.
He added that the area would be put under special concentration during the upcoming polio eradication campaign on September 10, while another special campaign would also be carried out to stop the spread of the virus in the region.
The total number of cases in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa now stands at nine; two each from Peshawar and Lakki Marwat, and one each from Swabi, Mardan, Charssada, Dera Ismail Khan and Kohat.
The number of polio cases reported in the country this year has reached 30.
The number of refusal cases across K-P is also on rise, despite efforts to convince parents to ease their reservations.
During the National Immunisation Campaign from July 16 to 18, a total of 19,051 refusal cases were reported in the province out of 5,118,829 targeted children. About 1,474 refusal cases were in Swabi.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2012.
COMMENTS (4)
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Why Polio cases reported in Pakistan every now and then despite rigorous campaign? Either the doctors and officials involved intentionally wanted to have cases like these to enjoy the facilities associated with this campaign or something wrong with the vaccine, as I heard that some local people here in Swabi are engaged in manufacturing the fake vaccine. Thanks
here you go, the vaccines were just a ploy and children were not adminstred real drops.Thnakyou Shakil & Save the Children.
Dr. Afrid and Save the Children must have been there in the last five years who were not actually serving their profession but their US master