QUETTA: Two fresh cases of polio surfaced in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday.
In Balochistan, a 17-month-old was diagnosed with the virus by the provincial health department. The latest polio case takes the total number of such cases in Balochistan to five this year.
In another instance, a girl in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also tested positive for poliovirus, reports said, taking the total polio cases in the northwestern province to 45 this year.
Officials claim a reluctance on the part of parents to immunize children against polio is the main reason behind the spike in the number of polio cases in Pakistan this year.
Along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, Pakistan is one of the only three countries where complete polio eradication has not yet been achieved. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), polio has been all but wiped out across the world.
Earlier in July, five new cases of the poliovirus were reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well. Three cases of polio were reported in Bannu and two cases were reported in Torghar.
A three-day anti-polio campaign kicked off in 29 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in August in an attempt to eradicate the virus. According to the provincial health department, more than four million children below the age of five would be given anti-polio drops during the campaign.
Prime Minister Imran Khan last month chaired a high-level meeting on the rise in polio cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other parts of Pakistan. On the occasion, he had stated that eradication of polio is the top-most priority of the government.
Expressing serious concern over the recent spike in polio cases, the PM directed officials concerned in the federal as well as provincial governments to undertake effective awareness and immunization campaigns to check the incidence of polio.
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