Polio case in Zhob: Officials hold refusal parents responsible

Rafiullah Mandokhail

ZHOB: A new poliovirus case has been reported in a rural part of Zhob district. A two-year-old child, raising the provincial tally to five and the national to twenty seven in the country in 2020. Stool sample was taken and sent for testing late in February and the result shows the poor and unfortunate child as affected by the crippling virus. The health officials in Zhob held the parents of the victim responsible as the two-year-old child has not received anti-polio vaccines since birth.

“A two-year-old child Shahid S/O Sharbat Khan, resident of Badinzai union council has been diagnosed with the virus due to the non-administration of the anti-polio vaccines during vaccination campaigns,” said District Health Officer Dr. Muzzafar Shah, while talking to journalists. “The case has been confirmed by the National Institute of Health in the federal capital, where sample of the child was sent for diagnostic tests and the result shows him as affected by the polio virus”, he added.

The health officials said that his parents had refused to vaccinate their son against the crippling disease. According to health officials, five cases of positive polio cases have been reported in Balochistan in recent year.

In 2017, a polio positive case was detected in a slum area of the district after a gap of three years. The officials of the health department had termed the parents of the child ‘silent refusal’ as it was not recorded as refusal.

In 2014 a polio worker, an ambulance driver and two Levies personnel escorting them were kidnapped in sensitive MurghaKibzai 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 four men. Zhob shares borders with tribal region and neighboring Afghanistan.