Pakistan- Two more polio cases reported in Landikotal
Date
1/26/2020 6:17:16 AM
(MENAFN- Tribal News Network) LANDIKOTAL: Two more polio cases have surfaced from Landikotal tehsil in Khyber tribal district after which the number of reported cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reached four this year.
According to Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), two-year-old Abu Hussain from Nekikhel and another child from Torwela have been diagnosed with polio. The samples of these two children were sent for laboratory tests in 2019 so these cases will be counted in the tally of 2019 which stands at 141 now.
The two cases in Landiktoal have been reported two days after emergence of three new polio cases in Qambar, Dadu and Sajawal districts of Sindh. Among them, two children contracted the crippling disease in 2019, but the cases were confirmed on Friday.
On January 21, the first case of polio in Pakistan in 2020 has surfaced in Lakki Marwat, the district with highest number of cases in 2019.
The year 2019 was worse for Pakistan in polio eradication efforts as 141 cases surfaced in Pakistan, including 96 cases in KP. Most cases in KP surfaced in Lakki Marwat where 32 children were diagnosed with the crippling disease. In 2018, only 12 cases were reported, while in 2017, eight cases were reported.
Currently, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world which have not fully eradicated polio. The main cause behind the emergence of so many polio cases is refusal of parents to cooperate with the vaccination teams. According to media reports citing Health Ministry data, over a million parents refused to cooperate with vaccination teams in 2019. Most of the refusal cases were reported in April last year when rumours spread in Peshawar that many children had fainted after consuming vaccination drops. A total of 1,089,087 parents refused to give vaccination drops to their children in 2019.
The emergence of so many polio cases in Pakistan, particularly in KP, has brought the federal and provincial governments under pressure over their performance and strategy to control the spread of disease.
Experts believe that polio vaccination efforts cannot succeed completely until the refusing parents are convinced to cooperate with vaccination teams.
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