This brings the total number of cases in the province this year to six. PHOTO: FILE
Polio virus was confirmed in a 10-month-old girl from Kohat on Thursday, in what is the district’s first case of the year.
An official at the Chief Minister’s Polio Monitoring Cell said the stool of Hijab from Jarma union council tested positive for wild polio virus (WPV1) according to the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad.
This brings the total number of cases in the province this year to six, compared to 15 cases reported in the same period last year. The total number of cases in the country, meanwhile, has reached 28. Of these, a staggering 17 have been reported from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) alone.
Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where the highly infectious, crippling disease remains endemic. Vaccination campaigns have been marred by frequent attacks on anti-polio teams which are now hesitant to perform duties in light of security concerns.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 6th, 2013.
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