Year's tally hits 24 as one more polio case confirmed in K-P

This is the eighth case confirmed in Bannu District in 2019

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's efforts to eradicate the poliovirus were dealt yet another blow on Monday as a new case was confirmed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's (K-P) Bannu District.

Officials associated with the country's polio eradication campaign confirmed the 18-month-old child was among the rising number of parental refusal cases and had received no prior vaccination.

The latest case becomes the eighth reported in Bannu District in 2019 and raises the total number of cases in Pakistan this year to 24.

The most number of cases - 11 - have been reported in K-P, followed by seven in K-P's tribal districts, three in Punjab and three in Sindh.

Special polio vaccination campaign starts on June 17

With six months still remaining, this year's tally is already the highest since 2016, when a total of 20 cases were reported throughout Pakistan.

Moreover, the number of cases confirmed by mid-June 2019 is three times 2017's total of eight, which was the lowest figure in the country since 2012.

The unwelcome spike in cases has prompted authorities to ramp up vaccination efforts and the latest nationwide vaccination campaign commenced on Monday.

With the aim of covering over 10 million children under the age of five, the three-day vaccination drive will be carried out in over 30 districts of Pakistan.

The nine districts selected in K-P are Bannu, Lakki Marwat, North Waziristan, Dera Ismail Khan, Tank, South Waziristan, Shangla, Buner, and Torghur.

In Punjab, more than four million children will be immunised in seven sensitive districts - Lahore, Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rawalpindi, Mianwali, Bhakkar, and Sheikhupura.

In Sindh, around 5.5 million children will be vaccinated. The immunisation drive will be for three days in all of Sindh except Karachi, where it will continue for a week in the city's six districts.

In Balochistan, officials hope to vaccinate around 1.3 million children in 13 districts of the country's largest province.