Another polio case reported from Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Despite the hectic efforts by the national and international donor agencies, Peshawar on Tuesday reported another polio case, raising the total number of polio cases to 14 this year in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Senior officials of the Health Department told The News that a 10-month old girl has been infected with poliovirus.
She fell sick on August 20 and her parents took her to a doctor. The doctor suspected her of polio victim and sent her samples to the National Institute of Health in Islamabad for investigation.
The child belongs to Sheikhan Union Council in Town-IV, near the militancy-plagued Khyber Agency.
The government has not been able to conduct regular door-to-door polio campaign in most parts of Khyber Agency due to deteriorating security situation and clashes between the law-enforcement agencies and local tribal militants since 2009.
Some officials of the Health Department suspected the possibility of transmission of the virus from adjoining Khyber tribal region from where local population often migrated and settled in the nearby villages.
Besides certain areas in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), there are
some places even in the provincial capital where polio teams can’t go to vaccinate children due to threats from militants and religious extremists who are opposed to polio drops to children.
Some of them suspect that it is an attempt by the West to decrease Muslims’ population by adding an ingredient to the polio vaccine causing impotency and infertility among men.
With the latest case, the total number of polio cases in the province reached 14.
Only 33 cases have been reported to date in the country.
Some 14 cases have been reported from KP and 10 from Fata. The districts where polio cases have been reported are close to Fata.
Last year till September, Pakistan had reported 170 polio cases.
Polio that can cause lifelong paralysis remains endemic in only two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently announced that Nigeria is no longer in polio endemic list.
This is the first time that Nigeria has interrupted transmission of wild poliovirus, bringing the country and the African region closer than ever to being certified polio-free.
The efforts of national and international community to eradicate poliovirus could not work accordingly due to corruption and nepotism in appointments in the foreign-funded projects as well as malicious propaganda against vaccination by some clerics and militants in KP and the Fata.
A lot of resources are being misused in the name of indoor activities such as seminars, workshops and useless training programmes in five-star hotels. Those risking their lives by working on the ground are underpaid.