Via The News International, a depressing report: One-year-old girl becomes city’s second polio victim this year.
A one-year-old baby girl, whose parents live in Karachi’s Gadap Town, has been diagnosed with polio, making her the second case of the crippling disease reported in Karachi this year – the third one in the province.
“Twelve-month-old Sana, daughter of Noor Muhammad Kakakhel, has been found polio positive in a laboratory test in Islamabad,” Additional Health Secretary Dr Masood Solangi told The News on Wednesday.
He added that Sana’s parents lived in Machhar Colony, Union Counci 4, Gadap Town.
“Her stool sample collected under acute flaccid paralysis was referred to a laboratory in Islamabad which confirmed that she was suffering from polio.”
Dr Solangi said apart from the latest case, one case had been detected in Dadu and other in Karachi’s Bin Qasim Town this year.
“The case history of the patient as to whether she was vaccinated or not will be shared with the media later after a probe.”
The additional health secretary said the child’s parents originally belonged to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
High-risk area
The Union Council 4 of Gadap Town has been identified as a high-risk area in terms of the presence of polio virus with a history of the murder of two vaccinators.
The residents are reluctant to have their children vaccinated and often turn violent during immunisation campaigns.
On May 27 this year, they had not allowed vaccinators to enter the locality and threatened them of dire consequences if they returned. The residents of the neighbourhood are mostly Pakhtuns who have arrived from the country’s tribal areas.
In July 2012, a paramedic associated with polio vaccination was shot dead in Gadap and World Health Organisation doctor from Ghana and his driver wounded in an attack in Sohrab Goth.
On December 17, 2012, a young volunteer associated with a polio campaign was also murdered in Gadap.
Polio vaccination campaigns in Gadap have been deferred many times over security threats.
A polio case was detected in the country’s tribal area of Miranshah on Wednesday too.
According to a report of the National Institute of Health, the coming four months were very crucial in terms of curbing polio and its cases were likely to swell.
