Pakistan’s polio count for the year has risen to 13 with one case reported on Friday as the country looks to contain a disease mostly eradicated elsewhere, officials said.
The latest case was found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and involved an 18-month-old boy reported to be undernourished, the health ministry said in a statement.
The previous 12 were reported from North Waziristan district, which in the past was a lawless area before military operations were launched in 2014.
“This is the first polio case reported from outside of North Waziristan district where vaccinators were still facing serious challenges in reaching out to children due to resistance from local religious leaders and unwilling parents,” provincial health department officials told Reuters.
Last month, a vaccination official along with two policemen on security duty were shot dead during a polio inoculation drive in KP.
“This case puts the wild polio case count for endemic countries at 14, with 13 cases from Pakistan between April and June 2022 and one case from Afghanistan in January,” the ministry said.
