Khalida Niaz
The Health Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported the second case of polio this year. A 3-year-old child from Bannu tested positive for polio type 1 virus.
Despite polio vaccination campaigns, the child’s parents have been refusing to administer polio drops regularly. The child received anti-polio drops only twice during the recent campaign.
The child’s parents noticed weakness in their child’s arms on July 11. This case marks the second polio case in the country this year, both originating from Bannu. In March, a 3-year-old from Baka Khel Union Council was diagnosed with poliovirus.
In 2022, Pakistan reported a total of 20 polio cases, all of which were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In contrast, only one polio case was reported from Balochistan in 2021.
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During the peak of polio cases in 2019, the country witnessed 147 cases. In 2020, 84 polio cases were recorded nationwide. Presently, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has the highest number of polio cases in Pakistan.
In July, the presence of poliovirus type one was confirmed in Peshawar, with similarities to the Asadabad virus in Afghanistan. The National Institute of Health detected the polio virus in an environmental sample from the ‘Narey Khwaar’ area of Peshawar.
