Polio case surfaces in city after seven years

A new polio case has surfaced after a gap of two years in Punjab and seven years in Lahore, a private media outlet reported Friday.

According to reports, the case surfaced in the Shalamar Town area of the provincial capital where the crippling disease has affected eight-month-old Yashif who was said to be vaccinated soon after his birth.

The health authorities confirmed the boy had been diagnosed with paralysis in the right leg.

A health official told the media outlet the last case was reported back in January 2017 in Lodhran district where a baby was tested positive for poliovirus.

The surfacing of the new case in Punjab’s capital has put a big question mark on the performance of provincial health authorities who are already facing allegations of taking inadequate precautionary measures.

The official said 29 environmental samples of poliovirus were reported positive in Punjab last year.

He said seven environmental samples drawn from various cities of the province in Jan 2017 alone were declared positive.

Of them, four were reported positive in Lahore, two in Rawalpindi and one in Faisalabad. He said the virus returned to Faisalabad after a gap of two years or so.