Seventh polio case detected in Sindh

The victim contracted the disease after having received seven courses of polio drops.

KARACHI: An eighteen months old girl has been diagnosed with polio in Karachi, bringing the number of polio cases in Sindh to seven this year.

The girl, Maria, is daughter of Tawab Khan, a resident of Baluch Colony in Orangi Town.  The cases come only days after a five-day polio immunization drive concluded in the province. This was the third drive in the province since the turn of the year. Last year 27 cases of polio were detected in Sindh.

According to sources, Maria contracted the disease after having received seven courses of polio drops. As a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals, Pakistan was supposed to have eradicated the virus in the year 2000.

This was the seventh reported case of polio virus in Sindh despite the fact that polio campaigns are being launched every month to control it.

Pakistan, along with Afghanistan, India and Nigeria are the last remaining endemic countries. 144 cases of polio were reported in Pakistan in 2010.