More polio cases in Bajaur, Dir regions of Pakistan

From The International News:

PESHAWAR -- Three more polio cases were reported on July 30 in the militancy-hit Bajaur tribal region and Upper Dir district in Malakand, raising the total number of polio cases to 10 this year in the province.

Provincial TB Control Programme manager, Dr Syed Mujahid Shah confirmed the new polio cases and argued that the areas where fresh cases surfaced were inaccessible for health workers.

Interestingly, the two unfortunate kids in Bajaur’s Arang and Mamond areas were reportedly administered polio drops in the three rounds of anti-polio campaign. Officials in Bajaur said they had confirmed P-III virus to the ill-fated Omar Khan son of Gul Wazir of Regi village of Mamond subdivision.

Mamond subdivision in Bajaur has been under the control of Taliban militants led by Maulana Faqir Muhammad for the past one year, making it hard for the government employees including health workers to do their jobs.

The second child detected with P-I virus is a baby girl, identified as Afsana Bibi daughter of Sher Mohammad. An official of the health department based in Bajaur said on condition of anonymity that Afsana was properly administered polio drops during the vaccination campaign in the area.

He said Arang area of Bajaur has been under the control of militants and health workers had freely worked to vaccinate kids against poliovirus. He said some clerics and militants were though launching a malicious propaganda against the immunization. He did not believe people would have paid any heed to their statements.

Another official in Bajaur blamed workers affiliated with the TB control programme for the new cases, saying, they never ensure immunization of kids in areas such as Bajaur. Also, he said, some of the health workers and sometime volunteers associated with the TB programme rarely take care of the polio drops due to lack of facilities. The official said he has observed in certain cases that polio drops were often exposed to sunlight in remote areas, thus making their whole exercise futile.

The lack of proper monitoring and then less incentives to the workers serving in Another child reported with poliovirus in Upper Dir, but it was not clear whether the kid received polio drops or not. There has been no refusal in Upper Dir recently and the polio teams did not face any such problems in vaccinating children against polio.

Dr Mujahid Shah said he was working with his team members to collect complete information about the three kids reported with poliovirus. He said like several other kids, the three children might not have received polio drops and therefore could have possibly become prey to the poliovirus.

With these three new cases, the total number of polio victims in the NWFP rose to 10. Besides, two each polio cases were detected in Mohmand, Bajaur and Charsadda, and one in Kohistan district.

adverse conditions in restive regions to vaccinate kids despite propaganda by the militants and mullahs were said to be some key factors making the immunization campaign a failure.