Five polio cases confirmed in K-P; year's count rises to 32

New polio cases confirmed in Torghar, Bannu and North Waziristan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s struggles to eradicate the poliovirus were further compounded as five new cases were confirmed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Thursday.

In a video message, Babar bin Atta, the prime minister's focal person on polio eradication, said two cases were traced in Torghar, two in Bannu and one in North Waziristan.

He said the emergence of these new cases was evidence of the disastrous effect of a recent propaganda campaign against the polio vaccine.

Babar urged parents to recognise that such propaganda campaigns were simply aimed at disrupting Pakistan's polio eradication efforts.

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“Due to the drama recently staged in Peshawar, people living in remote areas of K-P are now more hesitant to have their children vaccinated. These areas now require our special attention if Pakistan is to eliminate polio any time soon," he said.

Polio propaganda in Peshawar has fuelled parental refusals in far off areas of the country as Pakistan reports 05 new cases from KP today. I urge parents not to give in to false propaganda. Together we will InshaAllah make a #PolioFreePakistan pic.twitter.com/HQqIBPtOo9

— Babar Atta (@babarbinatta) June 27, 2019

 

Earlier this year, public hospitals of Peshawar were filled to capacity with over 25,000 children brought by their parents for check-ups after fake news spread that children were falling sick after taking anti-polio drops.

The new cases raised the total number of polio cases in Pakistan this year to 32, following the three cases reported in K-P on June 20.

The most number of cases – 19 – have been reported in K-P, followed by seven in K-P’s tribal districts, three in Punjab and three in Sindh.

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.



Pakistan is one of just three countries in the world, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, that have endemic polio, a once-common childhood virus that can cause paralysis or death.

The country’s success follows an intense programme based around vaccinating vulnerable children.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), polio has been all but wiped out across the world following a sustained vaccination campaign, with only 22 cases reported in 2017 against more than 350,000 in 1988.