Another child crippled by polio in Pakistan

A 10-month child from Ghulam Khan Union Council in North Waziristan has died after being confirmed with wild polio.

The National Institute of Health reported that the 10-month-old boy had onset of paralysis on September 15 and suffered from disabilities in his left arm and neck. He was the third child in the union council confirmed with the paralytic disease and the seventeenth in North Waziristan. Overall, Pakistan has recorded 20 wild polio cases this year.

Partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and representatives of various countries met on Wednesday to discuss challenges with polio eradication and determine the way forward.

Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel said the children of Pakistan need more support now than ever. “The current humanitarian crisis in the country has increased the risk of wild polio transmission. It is most crucial to support polio eradication now to protect them from further health concerns,” he said.

While the poliovirus has been detected outside southern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, it has not paralyzed children elsewhere in the country. National Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator Dr Shahzad Baig reiterated that while the number of cases has significantly increased this year, they have also been geographically contained. “If we can fight the virus in southern KP, then we can win over polio in Pakistan,” he said.