PESHAWAR: Four new wild type-1 polio cases surfaced in the Federally Administered Tribal Area (Fata) and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, raising the total number of polio cases this year in Pakistan to 280.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad confirmed the new cases on Saturday. The breakdown of the polio cases is as follows: 172 from Fata, 61 from K-P, 27 from Sindh, three from Punjab and 17 from Balochistan.
The first child reported as contracting polio today was identified as 13-month-old Rehan, son of Dedan Gula, hailing from Khawaza Khela tehsil, in Swat district.
This is the second polio case reported from the region, and Rehan belongs to the same family as that of the first reported case.
The second child identified identified today is 11-month-old Eid Gul, son of Gul Muhammad, hailing from the Toi Khwala area, South Waziristan Agency. The third victim was identified as 5-month-old Ihtesham, son of Muhammad Hussain, from the Jamrud tehsil, Khyber Agency.
Similarly, the fourth victim, Abdul Mateen, son of Muhammad Farooq, was 21 months old, also hails from Bara tehsil, Khyber Agency.
A Fata EPI official, who requested anonymity, confirmed the latest polio cases. He said children from Fata had not received a single dose of the anti-polio vaccination, adding that these children belonged to areas where polio teams had not managed to reach for the last three years in fear of the Taliban.
K-P's polio focal person Dr Imtiyaz Khan, while speaking to The Express Tribune, confirmed the second polio case that surfaced from Swat.
He said the first polio case – reported on November 24 -- was detected in 21-month-old Abu Takha, son of Noor Muhammad, Tarogay Village in Swat Valley, adding that the latest case surfaced from the same family.
Khan said a polio campaign had been carried out in Swat on December 8, and they have planned to hold two more polio campaigns – on December 13 and December 24 – in the region.
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Both PTI and PMLN are busy fighting for the power. Their governments can't care less about the generation of disabled children being created right under their nose.