Thursday, September 21, 2017
By
Sheeba Haider

Two-year-old contracts polio in KP in year's fifth case

By
Sheeba Haider
|

PESHAWAR: A two-year-old girl, identified as Taj Zai, is reported to have contracted the poliovirus in Lakki Marwat, health officials revealed on Thursday. 

This becomes the fifth reported case of polio in the country this year and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's first. Last year saw KP registering eight polio cases.

At present, an anti-polio vaccination campaign is under way in the province.

Polio cases have been on a decline in the country with 54 and 20 cases reported in the years 2015 and 2016 respectively, as opposed to 306 cases in 2014.

On Wednesday, while supervising an immunisation drive in Islamabad, the prime minister’s focal person on polio Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, said “Pakistan has recorded historic low number of cases in 2017 and we do not want to lose this opportunity and have to defeat this crippling virus by being vigilant, proactive and persistent.”