Sindh adds to 2020 polio tally

Meanwhile, another two cases from last year raise the province's count for 2019 to 27

KARACHI: The Sindh Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) has confirmed the detection of three new polio cases, reported from Qambar, Dadu and Sajawal districts. Among them, two children contracted the crippling disease in 2019, but the cases were confirmed on Friday.

A deceased eight-year-old boy from Qambar's Union Council (UC) 3 tested positive for polio, after being tested last year. While his parents claimed that he was administered seven doses of polio vaccine, the child was found not to have undergone routine immunisation. He belonged to a family of farmers and later died of causes other than polio.

Meanwhile, another polio case was reported from Dadu, where the virus affected a two-year-old boy, belonging to a family of labourers, in UC Drigh Bala. He was screened for the disease after his facial muscles weakened. The boy's father claimed that he was administered over seven doses of vaccine.

The cases, particularly the matter of the administration of vaccine to both the affected children, are being further investigated.

Another polio case - the second one in Sindh this year - has been reported from Sajawal district. A three-and-a-half-year-old boy in the district's UC Koti has tested positive for the disease, with the virus affecting his right leg. According to the boy's parents, he too has been administered more than seven doses of polio vaccine.

In light of these developments, the total number of polio cases registered in Sindh during 2019 has soared to 27, increasing the polio tally for the year in the country to 139. Similarly, with the surfacing of Sindh's second polio case in the current year, the number of total cases reported in Pakistan during the first few weeks of 2020 has climbed to four.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2020.