Two new polio cases take 2013's total count to 85

A male infant in South Waziristan and a female infant in Karachi were confirmed to be affected by polio-virus.

KARACHI: With polio-virus strains in Pakistan landing the country in trouble having found its way to Syria and slapped with travel restrictions in India, two new wild type-1 cases of polio were confirmed on Wednesday, to bring the country's 2013 total to 85, according to a World Health Organisation spokesperson.

The first case confirmed on Wednesday was that of a 13 month old male infant, Atif Ullah s/o Khan Sahib, a resident of area Shaktoi, village Aba Khel Mandau, South Waziristan agency. He never received the vaccination.

The second polio patient was Fatima d/o Mehmood Gul, a 12-month old girl from Madina Colony near Sabzi Mandi, UC-5 Gadap Town, Karachi.

The majority of polio cases in 2013 were reported from the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies (FATA), which registered 60 patients. 31 of these were from North Waziristan where there is a virtual ban on vaccination. Two were confirmed from South Waziristan and the rest from other agencies.

Punjab had seven confirmed infections from the virus, Sindh registered eight confirmed cases while Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa had ten confirmed cases.