Islamabad, May 1 (IANS) Two new polio cases have been reported from Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, bringing the total number of reported cases in the country since the start of this year to three, local media reported on Friday.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official of the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, told leading Pakistani daily Dawn that two new cases of wild poliovirus – one in Bannu and another in North Waziristan – were confirmed by the National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication (NEOC).

“The two new cases were reported through the poliovirus surveillance network and confirmed by the WHO-accredited Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH),” the official told the newspaper.

This has raised the total tally of reported Polio cases in Pakistan this year to three as the first case was confirmed in Sujawl district of Sindh province.

Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries in the world where polio cases are still reported.

Dawn reported last month that police escorts have been killed and polio workers abducted in attacks in KP’s Hangu and Bannu, besides parts of Balochistan.

The attacks on vaccination teams took place during the nationwide immunisation drive to administer polio drops.

In March, it was reported that as many as 233,000 children have been reported as leftovers due to security constraints, community boycotts, and snow-bound areas. An official mentioned that the total leftovers included 184,000 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and around 50,000 children remained unreachable in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan (PoGB) due to snow-bound regions and non-conduct of campaigns.

Vaccine refusals by parents remain another major challenge. Karachi alone accounted for about 31,000 refusals, nearly 58 per cent of the national total.

This has raised questions about the role of misinformation, weak planning, poor local governance and lack of political focus in the country’s largest city.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has imposed polio-related travel restrictions on Pakistan since 2014, which required all international travellers to carry a polio vaccination certificate.

–IANS

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