Two new polio cases confirmed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
The total number of polio cases in the country has escalated to eight in current year.
PESHAWAR (Dunya News) – At least two new polio cases surfaced in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, raising the tally to eight across the country in current year, Dunya News reported on Tuesday.
According to Emergency Operation Centre, polio virus has been confirmed in 22-month-old Hamza in Kot Bela area Bannu and two-year-old Razia in North Waziristan area.
Polio is a highly infectious disease that invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours. It is now endemic in only two countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
A $5.5 billion global eradication plan was launched last year with the aim of vaccinating 250 million children multiple times each year to stop the virus finding new footholds, and stepping up surveillance in more than 70 countries.
Pakistan’s polio cases are declining, with just 54 cases of polio virus were reported last year, down more than 80 percent from 2014, when the country suffered a large spike in cases.
Efforts to eliminate polio in Pakistan have became complicated in recent years, as polio workers have faced attacks by militants who say the health teams are Western spies, or that the vaccines they administer are intended to sterilise children.
