Polio Cases Found In Sindh And KP
Polio Cases Found In Sindh And KP: Two new polio cases surfaced in Karachi and Khyber Agency on Wednesday, bringing the total number of polio cases to six this year.
A four-year old girl was diagnosed with polio in a tribal district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and another case was identified in Karachi, National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication confirmed. The virus failed to cause any clinical paralysis to the children. “The polio virus has been continuously found in the sewage waters of Peshawar and Karachi for the last 12 months,” said PM’s Polio Eradication Focal Person Babar Bin Atta.
“The programme will continue to focus on clearing the remaining reservoirs from the virus,” he added. No child is absolutely safe as long as the virus is being detected anywhere in the country, Atta said.
He urged the parents to ensure that all of their children are vaccinated. “Parents who do not ensure vaccination of their children are risking health and lives of their own children, as well as others around them.”
The campaign to immunise Karachi’s children against polio suffered a setback on Wednesday after a three-and-a-half-year-old girl was tested positive for the crippling disease. She belongs to Gadap Town, which is notorious for such cases.
Salma Gul Ahmed was tested positive for the dreaded polio virus but, luckily, she escaped paralysis, Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) National Coordinator Dr. Rana Safdar told The News.
“This child is from UC-4 of Gadap Town, where the virus has been present in the environment for quite some time and whenever it finds a weak child, it attacks them. She had a dislocated hip, which alerted our polio worker, who sent her stool sample for a test.”
Dr. Safdar said the infected minor had been administered seven additional doses of oral polio vaccine besides routine immunisation, which prevented her from paralysis. He urged all parents to have their children vaccinated whenever health workers knock on their doors.
EOC Sindh Coordinator Fayyaz Jatoi said the child had a history of travelling between Quetta and Karachi. He said that despite that, she got infected in Karachi.
“Environmental samples in Gadap Town return positive from time to time, and the only way to protect children from the polio virus is vaccinating them each time a vaccination drive is carried out in the area.”
Meanwhile, the day’s other polio case was reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Landi Kotal tehsil. Dr Safdar said the 55-month-old girl had not been administered any routine immunisation dose but she had had multiple doses during additional vaccination drives.
He said she had facial palsy, which alerted a health worker, who sent her samples for a test. Multiple doses have been proving effective across the country, as they prevent the polio virus from paralysing children, he added.
After the two girls tested positive for polio, the total number of cases this year rose to six. Four earlier cases were reported in KP’s Charsadda and Balochistan’s Dukki.
For More Information & Videos Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel