Pakistan reports third polio case of the year

ISLAMABAD: A one-year-old boy in North Waziristan has been paralysed by wild poliovirus, in the third case to be reported from Pakistan this year.

A resident of Miranshah, the child had an onset of paralysis on May 2. The case was confirmed by the National Polio Laboratory housed within the National Institute of Health (NIH) here on May 14.

“Another child will live with a lifelong physical disability because of this preventable disease. As a country, we must understand the human cost of not finishing polio in Pakistan. Every polio case is a huge tragedy,” Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel said.

In the absence of any cure for poliovirus, the only way to protect children from life-long physical disabilities is to vaccinate them in each campaign. “Since January, we have taken emergency measures in the southern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to save children from wild polio and these measures have been further extended and intensified,” Patel added.

The six districts in southern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa had been identified by the polio programme as the area most at risk and an emergency action plan was initiated that is allowing the programme to reach more children than before.

“I am personally monitoring all polio eradication efforts. Recently, I visited Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa after the outbreak and met the families of the affected children.

I will now be going to all areas at high risk for polio to oversee operations on the ground,” Patel maintained. Commenting on the development, Secretary Health Aamir Ashraf Khawaja said, “After the first child was paralyzed, we feared that there would be more polio cases because how infectious this virus is. Unfortunately, there may be more cases until every child is reached by the vaccine.”