Five more polio cases in KP

PESHAWAR: Amid tough refusals from parents, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday reported five more polio cases, taking the tally this year to 53 in the country.

With the latest five cases, the number of polio cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reached 41. Of these, nine cases were reported from the merged districts.

According to officials, Bannu continued to remain a troubled spot in terms of polio outbreak and reported three more cases. In KP, Bannu alone reported 21 polio cases, followed by Torghar with five cases. Charsadda district that remained safe until now also reported first polio case this year.

The other polio case was reported from North Waziristan bordering Bannu.

In the tribal districts, North Waziristan reported seven polio cases while one each case has been reported from Bajaur and Khyber.

Polio outbreak has exposed poor strategy of the federal and provincial governments to curtail the poliovirus.

Senior government officials told The News that a number of reasons led to the polio outbreak but misconception as well as the mounting number of refusals had dealt a severe blow the polio programme in KP.

They said that lack of accountability and political interference in the strategy were stated to be other major reasons that prevented the government from controlling the virus.

“In Peshawar, our teams cannot go out to vaccinate children. In the provincial capital the authorities could not make a strategy to overcome growing refusals mainly based on misconceptions about polio vaccine,” said an official of the provincial health department.

He said most of the polio cases reported so far were due to refusals and misconception.

Another official in the polio programme said they were paying the price for mistakes made in the past.

“Actually we unnecessarily celebrated polio eradication in 2017 and did not focus on polio programme. It was too early to claim polio-free status and the result was the outbreak in 2018 and 2019,” he observed.