Pakistan reports two more Polio cases

F.P. Report

LAHORE: Two more cases of polio disease have emerged in a remote village of Vehari in Punjab.

After the emergence of three cases of the crippling disease in North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two more cases of poliovirus surfaced in the Punjab district of Vehari.

According to details, two real brothers: 6-year-old Habib and 4-year-old Shahzeb who live in the same house in a WB 101 Village of Vehari have been infected by the polio virus which has made them crippled.

The children’s father, Muhammad Akram has alleged that the health department teams have stopped them from mentioning the names of polio-hit children in front of anybody.

“The polio teams are trying to conceal polio cases in the region,” he further alleged.

The mother of the boys said that they had been administering polio drops to their kids since they were infants. “One of my boys has been completely infected while the other one is being infected by the crippling disease,” she said.

The parents appealed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz to help them and order for the free medical treatment of their kids.

The first case of poliovirus was emerged in a 15-month-old boy in North Waziristan on April 22 after a lull of about 15 months across the country.

On April 29, a two-year-old girl was paralyzed by the wild poliovirus in the second case confirmed in Pakistan this year. The child had an onset of paralysis on April 14.

The new type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) was confirmed from North Waziristan on 29 April 2022 by the Pakistan National Polio Laboratory at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad.

Then again on May 15, the poliovirus was detected in a one-year-old child from North Waziristan.

The rising polio cases across the country have raised alarm bells among the health experts who are believing that the wild virus is now active.

Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel maintained that the non-eradication of poliovirus in Pakistan was a major dilemma asserting that in order to save the children from life-long paralysis the parents should get their children vaccinated.

In the backdrop of emerging polio cases, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on April 25 convened an emergency meeting of the National Task Force for Anti-Polio.

In his tweet uploaded on April 23, the premier expressed his deep concern over the emergence of polio case.