Another polio case emerges in Balochistan province

QUETTA: Another polio case has emerged from the Balochistan province during the 2020, raising the total tally of cases from the province during ongoing year to four, ARY NEWS reported on Wednesday.

The case was reported from a child in Tehsil Manjhi Pur of the Balochistan’s Sohbatpur district.

According to health authorities in the province, they collected child’s sample on February 12 and the case has now been confirmed.

On February 29, another polio case emerged in Sindh province on Saturday, raising the total number of cases in the ongoing year to 20.

According to the polio emergency operation centre Sindh, the case was confirmed in a two-year-old minor. This is a seventh confirmed case in Sindh province this year.

The recently concluded anti-polio drive across Pakistan yielded more than expected results as 124,000 more children than the set target were immunized during the country-wide campaign.

It is pertinent to mention here that a five-day countrywide anti-polio drive commenced immunizing over 39.4 million children. Around 2,65,000 anti-polio workers are participating in the drive across the country.

According to a report received by the National Health Ministry, the success of immunization drive remained at 100.3 percent with Punjab province showing the most positive response with 102.4 percent success rate.

“478,000 more children were immunized than the set target during the campaign in Punjab,” the report said adding that the Sindh province followed in next with 100.07 percent success rate as 63493 more children were immunized during the anti-polio drive.

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) also witnessed a 100.1 percent success rate during the immunization drive.

Read More: Pakistan’s only polio test laboratory upgraded with Japan’s support 

However, not all the provinces and regions of the country were able to achieve the immunization targets as around 418,000 children remained deprived of being administered polio drops during the drive.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan province showed the most unfortunate results as around 200000 children were not administered the drops during the immunization drive.

The campaign achieved 97.1 percent targets in the KP province and 91 percent immunization targets in Balochistan province,” it said.