Three more polio cases surface in Sindh

Raises the total number of such cases in Sindh to 13 in 2019

HYDERABAD: After a short span of a few months, three more cases of polio have surfaced in Sindh with one child diagnosed positive for the disease in Karachi, Jamshoro and Shaheed Benazirabad each.

Health Director-General Masood Ahmed Solangi confirmed the new cases on Saturday which have raised the total number of such cases in Sindh to 13 in 2019.

On August 25, two positive cases emerged in Hyderabad.

The three carriers of the virus included a 12-year-old boy, Abdullah, son of Asif in Karachi's Kaemari area, Bisma, 3, daughter of Bhai Khan, belonging to Union Council 2 in Sakrand, Shaheed Benazirabad, and 30-months-old Hina, daughter of Naeem Khaskheli, of UC Nango Line in Kotri, Jamshoro.

The DG informed that the children belonging to Karachi and Shaheed Benazirabad received at least seven doses of polio immunisation during as many Supplementary Immunisation Activity (SIA) campaigns. The latter was given the polio drops during all the last six SIAs. However, the record of SIA doses received or not received by Hina are not available, he added.

Jamshoro DHO Mushtaq Solangi told that the health authorities stumbled upon Hina after a newborn was brought to the local hospital with the symptoms of polio. However, the medical tests ruled out the presence of polio virus in that infant.

"We collected samples of all the students from that child's village in Kotri and later found Hina affected by the virus." He told that her samples will be sent to Geneva for further lab examination. Dr Noorullah Larik, the district polio focal person, said the polio samples have been found in the drainage of the locality.

Bisma's father Bhai Khan Rind alleged that his village is often neglected during the polio immunisation campaigns. Shaheed Benazirabad DHO Dr Moeen Shaikh refuted the allegation, saying that the health teams regularly visited the village during the polio campaigns. Only one case was reported in Sindh last year and two cases were reported in 2017. The number of total polio cases throughout the province in 2016 was eight while in 2015 the number of polio cases reached at 12.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 24^th, 2019.