Two new polio cases reported in K-P, Fata

Diagnosis comes before the next anti-polio drive to be carried out from Nov 19. Country's polio tally rises to 51.

PEHSAWAR: Two new polio cases were reported on Tuesday in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).

The Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI) confirmed reports of a new polio case in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) on Tuesday. The deputy director of the EPI in K-P, Dr Janbaz Afridi, told The Express Tribune that an 18-month-old boy had been infected with the polio virus. The child, Asad Khan, hails from Ashezo Mera village in district Buner.

Dr Afridi also said that the child had been administered more than seven doses of the vaccine since his birth on May 17, 2011.

In the second polio case reported, 24-month-old Muslim Khan from Khan Kallay in Jamrud, Khyber Agency was confirmed to have type P1 of the polio virus. Dr Afridi said that the area was ‘accessible’ but the child had so far only received one dose of the vaccination.

The new cases bring the total number of polio cases across Pakistan to 51. The majority of these cases are reported in K-P and the Fata, with 20 and 19 polio cases reported from each of the areas respectively.

The EPI deputy director said that Punjab has so far reported only three cases, while Sindh and Balochistan have reported four each. One child so far has been diagnosed with polio in Gilgit-Baltistan.

The next anti-polio drive in K-P and Fata, due to start on November 19, aims to administer the vaccine to as many as 800,000 children under the age of five in Peshawar district.