Third polio case reported in Balochistan

Toddler tests positive for virus

QUETTA: A third case of polio was confirmed on Friday in Balochistan's Dakki district with an 18-month-old toddler testing positive for the virus.

This brings the number of polio cases reported over the year to three. The other two cases were also reported in Dakki.

Pakistan is one of three countries of the world fighting endemic polio, a childhood virus that can cause paralysis or death.  The other two are Afganistan and Nigeria.



In April, the government launched a nationwide polio vaccination drive to reach 38.7 million children to eradicate the paralysing and potentially deadly virus. Reported cases have steadily declined since 2014 when 306 were reported.

At least eight cases were reported in 2017. Efforts to eradicate the disease have been undermined by opposition from the Taliban and other militants, who term immunisation a foreign ploy to sterilise Muslim children or provide cover for Western spies.

In January, gunmen killed a mother-and-daughter vaccination team working in Balochistan. Three years earlier, 15 people were killed in a bombing by the Pakistani Taliban outside a polio vaccination centre in Balochistan.