PESHAWAR: The Emergency Operation Center (EOC) has confirmed a new case of polio in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. A 10-month-old girl from Darra Adam Khel has tested positive for the poliovirus, marking the second case in the province this year.
This recent case follows just six days after another child in the Mohmand district was diagnosed with polio. On September 21, a nine-month-old girl from Safi Tehsil in Mohmand was reported to have the virus.
With this latest infection, Pakistan’s total polio cases for the year have reached 24, according to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department. Earlier this week, a case was also reported in Balochistan’s Pishin district, increasing that province’s total to 15 for the year. The National Institute of Health confirmed that a two-and-a-half-year-old child was affected, raising alarms about the virus’s spread in vulnerable areas.
In response, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif launched a nationwide vaccination campaign aimed at reaching 30 million children under five. This initiative involves deploying around 286,000 polio workers for door-to-door vaccination efforts.
Tragically, a recent terrorist attack on the Zhob-DI Khan National Highway resulted in the deaths of three Anti-Terrorist Force personnel who were protecting polio workers, underscoring the dangers faced by those involved in vaccination efforts.
