ISLAMABAD: Another polio case was reported on Wednesday from North Waziristan tribal district, with the total number of cases for the current year reaching 16.
The new case was reported from Zeraki Baadshah Kot village of Mirali UC, where a 42-month-old child was diagnosed with the crippling disease.
An official of the Polio Virology Laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH), said that samples were collected on April 26 and it was confirmed that the child was paralysed due to poliovirus.
Few days earlier, expressing concerns over the rising cases of polio in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Prime Minister Minister’s Focal Person on Polio Eradication Babar Bin Ata asked KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to convene a meeting of the provincial task force on polio eradication.
Read More: Larkana’s three-year-old diagnosed with polio
The vaccination campaign to eradicate polio from Pakistna has seen major setbacks in recent weeks.
Misinformation and anti-vaccine narrative remains one of key challenges in Pakistan’s fight against the crippling disease.
Pakistan is one of the three remaining countries in the world where poliomyelitis (polio) is still categorised as an endemic viral infection.
The others being Afghanistan and Nigeria.
