On the rise: Polio cases pass 2012 total

Around 62 cases have so far been confirmed by health authorities.

ISLAMABAD:

Polio is on the rise in Pakistan, health officials said on Wednesday, as the number of infections in 2013 passed the total for the whole of 2012.

Pakistan is one of the three countries in the world where the highly infectious crippling disease remains endemic.

Opposition from militant groups has hampered efforts to vaccinate children against polio in the country and government officials say that militancy contributes to the increase in polio cases.

“Last year, there were a total of 58 cases but 62 fresh victims of polio have already been reported in 2013,” a senior government official, who works with international donors working to eradicate polio, told AFP.



Six cases were in eastern Punjab province, four in Sindh in the south and nine in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa but the bulk of the infections – 43 – were in the tribal areas along the Afghan border.

Pakistani Taliban banned polio vaccinations in the tribal region of Waziristan last year, alleging the campaign was a cover for espionage.

“The main reason for the outbreak is militancy in the northwest. Vaccination teams are unable to reach the tribal areas because of risks to their lives,” the official said.

Polio cases reached a low of 28 in 2005 but have risen since, reaching a peak of 198 in 2011.



In August health officials warned of a serious polio outbreak in the northwest, saying more than 240,000 children had missed vaccination because of the Taliban ban.

Elsewhere in the country, health workers giving out polio drops have been attacked and killed, including in the largest city Karachi.

On Monday, the World Health Organisation linked an outbreak of polio in Syria that has paralysed 13 children to a strain of the virus that had originated in Pakistan. 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 14^th, 2013.