Two more confirmed polio cases in Mir Ali

APP

ISLAMABAD: Two more wild polio cases have been confirmed from North Waziristan, leaving a young boy and girl paralyzed, health officials confirmed on Friday.

According to them, both children are 18-month-old and belong to Mir Ali. The girl child had an onset of paralysis on May 10 and the young boy child on May 11.

Both cases were confirmed by the Pakistan National Polio Laboratory at the National Institute of Health, Islamabad on Thursday, May 26.

This is the sixth confirmed case in North Waziristan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, this year, said an official.

Federal Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel has urged the people of Pakistan to vaccinate their children, adding that they learn a lesson from the suffering of these children as they will struggle for the rest of their lives because of the pain of disabilities caused by polio.

The southern districts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa that including North and South Waziristan, DI Khan, Bannu, Tank and Lakki Marwat, are at the highest risk of wild poliovirus. While no human transmission has been reported outside North Waziristan, two positive environmental samples between April and May were reported from Bannu.

Federal Health Secretary Aamir Ashraf Khawaja said” “All children suffering from wild polio are being offered rehabilitation services but regardless of the support the government provides, there is a cure to polio. The only way to protect children is to give them repeated doses of the polio vaccine.”

All children confirmed with wild polio this year belong to North Waziristan, where more cases are expected due to high refusal rates and instances of finger-marking without vaccination during campaigns.

“The Pakistan Polio Programme has conducted emergency campaigns in the area, while children are administered the vaccine at all entry and exit points from southern KP to control the spread of the virus,” said National Emergency Operations Centre Coordinator Dr Shahzad Baig.

“The programme is working relentlessly to control the spread of wild polio, but we need the support of parents and caregivers to succeed in our mission of a polio-free Pakistan,” Dr Baig added.

The only two endemic countries in the world, Pakistan and Afghanistan, synchronized immunization campaigns from May 23 to May 27, vaccinating millions of children on both sides of the border.