Crippling disease: Two fresh polio cases emerge in Fata

PESHAWAR/ ISLAMABAD:

The total number of polio cases reported so far in 2015 from across the country has jumped to 32 after two fresh cases were confirmed from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) on Tuesday.

Officials at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad confirmed the fresh cases.

The polio virus was confirmed in 18-month-old Sahar Gul, a resident of union council Mastak in tehsil Bara of Khyber Agency and an 18-month-old child, Abdullah, resident of Malik Sher Khan village in Khyber Agency’s Landi Kotal tehsil.

With these two, the total number of cases reported from Fata has reached ten. So far 13 cases are reported from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), five from Balochistan and four from Sindh province while no case has been reported from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Tribal areas were greatly affected by the viral disease as prior to the beginning of a military operation in the region, these areas were largely out of bounds for polio teams due to a ban imposed by militants outfits.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th,  2015.