ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health authorities on Friday confirmed the 11th case of polio virus so far this year in the country’s former Taliban stronghold in the northwest, a region bordering Afghanistan.
The outbreak, after the first polio case of 2022 was registered in the same region in April, is a blow to the South Asian nation’s efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children.
All 11 cases have been reported in North Waziristan, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, where parents often refuse to get their children inoculated.
“Polio [virus] confirmed in an eight-month-old child. The child hails from Union Council 7 of Mir Ali in North Waziristan,” a spokesperson for the Pakistani health ministry said in a statement.
“This year all cases have been reported in North Waziristan. The number of cases in Mir Ali has reached eight.”
Pakistan’s Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel said authorities were taking emergency measures to contain the virus, according to the statement. He urged parents to get their children administered the anti-polio vaccine.
North Waziristan, a former tribal region, was a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban until recently, when the military claimed to have cleared the region of militants following several wide-scale operations there. However, attacks still persist.
Pakistan has for the past 25 years carried out regular inoculation campaigns in which health workers go door-to-door to give polio drops to children. Most of the workers are women, as they can get better access to mothers and children. The anti-polio teams are often escorted by security forces.
So far this year, the government has carried out three nationwide anti-polio drives — in January, March and in May. During the March campaign, gunmen in northwestern Pakistan shot and killed a female polio worker as she was returning home after a day of vaccinations. And in January, gunmen shot and killed a police officer providing security for polio vaccination workers, also in the country’s northwest.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic. In 2021, Pakistan reported only one case, raising hopes it was close to eradicating polio.