Latest confirmation: Polio count for 2015 reaches 52

Four-year-old Rahimyar Khan resident tests positive for poliovirus.

BAHAWALPUR/QUETTA: The sample of a four-year-old boy from Rahimyar Khan in Punjab has tested positive for poliovirus, taking the count of polio cases of 2015 to 52. This is reportedly the first case in the district in the past four years.

District health authorities said Zar Gul Khan contracted the crippling disease on December 2, 2015.

EDO Health Basharat Hussain said the child had come from Loralai in October last year and was vaccinated by the health department. The child is from a nomadic family which spends winters in Rahim Yar Khan and live in Loralai during the summers.



The child’s mother claimed the boy was born in the Goth Aaloo village of Rahim Yar Khan and had never been immunised against any disease.

Immunisation drive

Meanwhile, this year’s first anti-polio campaign in Balochistan will kick off from today (Monday).

While addressing a press conference, Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) coordinator Dr Saifur Rehman announced the three-day monthly drive would target 2,472,616 children across 30 districts of Balochistan.

About 6,603 polio teams will administer polio drops at 796 fixed sites and 321 transit points. Around 55,085 children of Afghan refugees below five years of age will also be administered polio drops. Some 88 camps of Afghan refugees would also be targeted during the campaign.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where poliovirus is still endemic. In 2015, 52 polio cases were reported in Pakistan with seven of them from Balochistan.

Dr Saif said the provincial government would up its efforts as long as poliovirus was eliminated.

Discussing the future plan, he said that from February onwards, injectable polio vaccines (IPV) would be used instead of oral polio drops.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2016.