PESHAWAR: The National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad has notified this year’s first wild polio case in Tehsil Sarai Naurang of district Lakki Marwat.
According to the notification, the polio virus has been isolated from the stool sample of a 12 months old male child from union council Bakhmal Ahmedzai, Sarai Naurang, Lakki Marwat.
According to the family’s vaccination history, they refused proper vaccination with only allowing their children one dose of essential immunisation and three doses of SIAs as per recall.
It is pertinent to mention here that the oral polio vaccine (OPV) is the only cure from poliomyelitis as once contracted the disease was incurable.
“The major cause of the surge in polio cases is parental refusal, misconceptions, and anti-polio propagandas,” said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) coordinator Abdul Basit.
“In the new year, we must pledge to wipe out this menace as the more it lingers on, the more children will be disabled for life and the country will continue to bear travel sanctions,” he added.
He said that polio eradication was a government programme that protects children from disabilities, adding that eradicating the disease is a matter of national pride as it has already been wiped out across the globe except for Pakistan and Afghanistan.
