Crippling virus: New polio case confirmed in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Another polio case was confirmed in Peshawar on Friday, pushing the tally of 2015’s polio cases in Pakistan to 53. With the new case, the number of children with polio has risen to 16 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa with 11 in Peshawar. Twelve-month-old Muhammad Maaz, a resident of Shakarpura village has been diagnosed with polio. He contracted the virus as his parents refused to administer doses of the oral polio vaccine (OPV). Earlier, the sample of a four-year-old boy from Rahimyar Khan in Punjab tested positive for polio virus. This was reportedly the first case in the district in the past four years. The victim was identified as Zar Gul Khan who contracted the crippling disease on December 2, 2015. The child had come from Loralai in October last year and was vaccinated by the health department. 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. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio virus is still endemic.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2016.