New polio case surfaces in Zhob slum area

Rafiullah Mandokhail

ZHOB: A new polio case detected after a gap of three years in Zhob district that shares borders with South Waziristan and neighboring Afghanistan.

District Health Officer Dr. Muzaffar Shah told reporters that a two-year-old child Habib-ur-Rehman son of Akhter Muhammad resident of Suhrab Goth area has been diagnosed with the poliovirus, making it the second positive case in Balochistan province, while seventh in the country this year.

“The case has been confirmed by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the federal capital, where stool samples of the child had been sent for diagnostic tests” he said.

The officials of the health department have termed the parents of the child ‘silent refusal’ as it was not recorded as refusal. Quoting his parents DHO said that the child had not been administered anti-polio drops since his birth. The slum area where the case has been detected falls in union council Hassanzai, adjacent to Hariphalabad area. Three years back a 23-month-old girl Wahida D/O Kareem Shah resident of Toor Ragha Khwasti Laka Bund union council was also diagnosed with poliovirus. According to the health officials her parents had refused to vaccinate their baby against the crippling disease.

In 2014 a polio worker, an ambulance driver and two Levies personnel escorting them were kidnapped in Murgha Kibzai area of the district. The kidnapped were shot dead before their bodies were thrown in a desolated part of the area. Taliban had claimed responsibility for the ruthless killing of the three men.