Three months into 2014: South Waziristan’s first polio case surfaces

Six-month-old Nazamina has not received a single dose of OPV

PESHAWAR: The National Institute of Health in Islamabad confirmed another wild poliovirus (type-1) case on Saturday, this time from South Waziristan Agency (SWA). This case takes the country’s total to 27 in 2014.

The latest victim of the crippling disease is Nazamina, the daughter of Waris Khan. The six-month-old child is a resident of Azam Warsak village in Birmal, SWA.

An Expanded Programme on Immunisation official from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas confirmed Nazamina has never been vaccinated against polio.

Since 22 of these cases 27 cases have been reported from North and South Waziristan where a ban against polio vaccination has remained in place since 2012, it follows that almost all children diagnosed with the virus this year have not received a single dose of the oral polio vaccine.

The remaining cases this year have been from Khyber Agency (1), Frontier Region Bannu (1),  Bannu (1) and Peshawar (2).