Polio: Three more cases surface from tribal areas

Officials fear the number of cases this year may go beyond 70.

PESHAWAR: Three more children from the tribal belt were diagnosed with wild type-1 polio, increasing the number of cases this year to 46.

Last year, Pakistan reported 58 cases of polio and officials part of the polio eradication campaign, fear the number may go beyond 70 in 2013.

The National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad confirmed the cases on Monday. According to the NIH report, the infected children had not been given any oral polio vaccine. The report says two polio cases were confirmed from Frontier Region (FR) Bannu, while another was reported from North Waziristan.



Among the three children is an eight-month-old girl named Sahibzada, a resident of village Bobali in Mir Ali  tehsil, North Waziristan. Sahibzada was diagnosed with P1 type of polio virus. She had not been administered any vaccination due to the ban imposed on immunisation in the area.

Another child Sabikha was also diagnosed with the P1 strain of virus. Sabikha, a resident of Mamand Khel in FR Bannu, is only two months old.

The third polio case, also reported from FR Bannu, was found in Samiullah an 11-month-old boy from Hindi Khel village, Miro Khel.

Thirty-four of this year’s cases have been reported from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas alone.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2013.