Two more polio cases emerge in Khyber Agency

For the past three years, the area has witnessed an outbreak of the virus.

ISLAMABAD:

Two more cases of polio have been reported from Khyber Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), on Thursday, bringing the total number of polio cases reported in the country this year to 14, according to documents available with The Express Tribune.

Six-month-old Farman has been diagnosed with type-1 poliovirus, while one-year-old Naila has been infected by type-3 wild poliovirus. Both children are residents of Bara tehsil.  In the past one and a half year, about 20 cases have been reported from Khyber Agency.

The children did not receive any dose of oral polio vaccine in either routine or supplementary immunisation drives, according to their parents.

Farman belongs to Shalobar, which has been inaccessible for vaccination teams since September 2009. It ranks among high-risk areas of Khyber Agency, due to repeated infection, persistent transmission and inaccessibility, state the documents.

Three polio cases have been reported from Khyber Agency this year. There has been an outbreak of polio in Khyber Agency since the past three years, which can largely be attributed to inaccessibility for vaccination teams due to militancy.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, a senior official working with the polio programme, who wished not to be named, said there is an urgent need to stop the spread of polio virus in Fata. “The large number of cases from the same areas is alarming.”

This amplifies the fear that the movement of internally displaced persons is a major threat to other areas. “If this trend continues, there are chances that polio drops will also be administrated to people aged between 15 to 20 years,” he said.

More than 40% children in the agency remained inaccessible to vaccination teams in most of the campaigns since January 2011 except in July.

Even in the accessible areas, coverage was not uniform as indicated by the high proportion of areas where finger-marking coverage was below 95% which is below the target set out in the National Emergency Action Plan for Polio Eradication 2011.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2012.