Future in peril: With 7 more cases, 194 children now infected with polio

Two cases reported from Peshawar, two from Khyber Agency and one each from Karachi, North Waziristan Agency and Mardan

PESHAWAR: Poliovirus continued to run wild in the country as by Thursday, seven more children had been diagnosed with the preventable disease which has infected at least 194 children in the country so far this year.

Till Thursday afternoon, the National Institute of Health, Islamabad had confirmed the presence of the virus in four-month-old Zubaid, son of Zafar, a resident of Jehangirabad village in Sheikhan union council, Peshawar.

According to an official of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa health department, the child had not received a single dose of the oral polio vaccine. He added Sheikhan UC is located along the border with Khyber Agency and a majority of the area’s children could not be vaccinated in the government’s much vaunted Sehat ka Insaf drive.

However, by the late evening, six more children had tested positive for the virus. These included one from Peshawar, two from Khyber Agency and one each from Karachi, North Waziristan Agency and Mardan. The samples had been collected between September 3 and September 20.

So far, out of the 194 total, 134 cases have been reported from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, 35 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 18 from Sindh, five from Balochistan and two from Punjab.

__________________________________________________________________

[poll id="1357"]