Preventable Diseases: One more polio case found in K-P

Total number of polio cases goes to 16 in the militancy-hit province so far.

PESHAWAR: Another positive polio case has been detected in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), bringing the total number of polio cases to 16 in the militancy-hit province so far. According to the Polio Monitoring and Coordination Cell AFP Surveillance update, the case was detected in Buner, where 42-month-old Sher Alam, a resident of Gujar Abad village in the Chingali Union Council of Totalai Tehsil was first diagnosed with polio type-1 on November 11. Subsequent testing confirmed that he had been infected with the virus. According to parents, the child has received more than seven doses of oral polio vaccine including two doses of routine immunisation. However, this is the third polio case reported in the district this year. Militancy-hit Buner has a number of areas that are inaccessible to polio teams.  The number of polio cases nationwide has reached 161: 47 in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, 16 in K-P, four in Punjab, 30 in Sindh, 63 in Balochistan and one in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2011.