Polio: Two new cases reported in K-P, Fata

Diagnosis comes before the next polio drive to be carried out from Nov 19.

PESHAWAR:

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

The deputy director for the Expanded Programme for Immunisation (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, is from Ashezo Mera village in district Buner. Dr Afridi also said that the child had been given more than seven doses of the vaccine since his birth on May 17, 2011.

Separately, 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. Majority of these cases are reported in K-P and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), with each having 20 and 19 polio cases reported respectively.

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

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2012.