Di Khan / Islamabad:
An sub-political campaign began in southern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) on a dark note while unknown disbelievers have removed three senior officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday who watched the campaign. Two other polio cases have also been confirmed in the KP.
According to a press release published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the two new cases emerged in the districts of northern Waziristan and Lakki Marwat.
In northern Waziristan, Mir Ali Tehsil, a 19 month old infant was found infected with paralyzing disease. The other case was confirmed in an 11 -month -old baby in the Suleman Khel Tehsil of Lakki Marwat.
These new cases have taken the total number of cases reported in the KP since the start of the year at 18, the highest of any province of the country. The national statement is now 26 years old, with six cases of Sindh, 18 from KP and one from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Cetailing the results of environmental wastewater samples in August concerning polio – collected in 87 districts across the country – NIH said: “Of the 126 environmental samples tested, 75 were found negative without detected polioviruses, while 51 positive tested samples.”
According to the NIH, out of a total of 23 samples tested for polio in Balutchistan, only one was positive, while in the KP, out of 34 samples tested, 10 proved to be positive.
Punjab recorded 14 positive polio samples, out of 31 tested; Poliovirus was found in 24 29 samples tested in the Sindh, including 12 in Karachi. A sample was found positive for the GB and Islamabad virus.
“Balutchistan reported a marked reduction, with a single positive environmental site in July and August, against 19 in January,” the press release said.
“In KP, positive environmental sites went from 13 to April 10 in August,” he noted.
He said that “seven of the 10 positive sites were in the south of the province, while all Peshawar samples were tested negative for the virus. In Islamabad, the number of positive environmental sites decreased from three in July to August.”
The NIH expressed its concern in the face of “continuous detection of cases, especially in southern KP”, declaring that “children living in difficult to access areas and those of communities with low vaccine acceptance remain the most at risk”.
Meanwhile, three senior officials who were monitoring the polio campaign in the KP tank district were removed by unidentified armed men.
Tank district police officer (DPO) Shabir Hussain told L’Express PK Press Club that kidnapped police had been identified as the district surveillance officer, Dr. Ihso, UCCSO Hikmatullah and UCPO Abdullah.
“The three officials were kidnapped from the Umar Khail district of the Union Mulla Zai Council in the Tank district. The police have launched efforts to recover the kidnapped,” he added.
