Daily Times

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Health Department on Sunday reported that five new cases of polio have emerged in the province, with four out of the five were reported from Khyber district and one from Nowshera.

The department added that all five children were diagnosed with the disease as they were not given the all-important vaccine that eliminates the disease.

According to details, two and half year old child belonging to Khairabad area of the district was found to be affected with polio virus. The National Institute of Health (NIH) has confirmed the new polio case surfaced in Nowshera. The last polio case in the district was detected some four years earlier in 2016.

Earlier this month, a polio-virus case was also reported from Sindh’s Kashmor district as well. In January, it was reported that the overall tally of reported polio cases across the country had reached 134 in 2019, including 91 cases in KP, 24 cases in Sindh, eight in Punjab, and 11 in Balochistan.

The cases have emerged after a February 17-21 nation-wide campaign aimed to vaccinate 39.6 million children under the age of five years against the disease.