ISLAMABAD: Two more cases of polio disease have reported in a village of district Vehari in Punjab on Monday, taking the number of reported polio cases so far in 2022 to five.
According to health officials, polio virus has been found in two real brothers: six-year-old Habib and four-year-old Shahzeb, residents of Village WB/101 in Vehari District of Punjab. Muhammad Akram, father of the children alleged that the health department teams have stopped them from disclosing names of polio-hit children to anybody.
“The polio teams have trying to conceal polio cases in the region,” he further alleged.
It is to be noted that three cases of the crippling disease have already been reported in North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – two in the month of April and one in the ongoing May.
The children mother informed that they had been immunizing their kids against polio since they were infants. “One of my children has been completely infected while the other one is being infected by the crippling disease,” she said.
The parents appealed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz to help them and order for the free medical treatment of their kids.
The first poliovirus case of the current year 2022 reported in a 15-month-old boy in North Waziristan on April 22 after a lull of about 15 months across the country. On April 29, a two-year-old girl was paralyzed by the wild poliovirus in the second case confirmed in Pakistan this year. The child had an onset of paralysis on April 14.
The new type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) was confirmed from North Waziristan on April 29, 2022 by the National Institute of Health in Islamabad. Then again on May 15, the poliovirus was detected in a one-year-old child from North Waziristan.
The rising polio cases across the country have raised alarm bells among the health experts who believe that the wild virus is now active.
Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel maintained that the non-eradication of poliovirus in Pakistan is a dilemma, asserting that in order to save the children from life-long paralysis the parents should get their children vaccinated.
In the backdrop of emerging polio cases, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened an emergency meeting of the National Task Force for Anti-Polio on April 25.
In his tweet, the premier expressed his deep concern over the emergence of polio case.
NATIONAL ANTI-POLIO DRIVE KICKS OFF
A five-day anti-polio campaign was launched across the country on Monday. During the campaign, approximately 43.3 million children under the age of five years will be administered anti-polio vaccine.
A supplementary dose of Vitamin A drops will also be administered to children aged 6 months to five years. Around 340,000 frontline workers will take part in the campaign to administer vaccines to the children at their doorsteps.
Inaugurating the campaign, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif assured that the government would take all measures to eradicate the crippling disease from the country.
He directed the federal and provincial governments and district management to address the challenge of persistently missed children, refusals and fake finger marking during the campaign.
Earlier, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Co-Chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates held a telephone conversation.
During a telephonic conversation with COAS Bajwa, Bill Gates appreciated Pakistan’s success against COVID-19 despite resource constraints. He also appreciated Pakistan Army for supporting the national polio drive, ensuring proper reach and coverage.
