ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The number of polio cases in Pakistan has reached 280 during the current year after four more cases were detected on Saturday in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the federally administrated tribal areas (FATA).
The new cases which surfaced on Saturday included one case in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat district where a 13-year-old girl was diagnosed with crippling polio virus, according to the prime minister’s polio monitoring & coordination cell.
Likewise, one polio case was reported in South Waziristan while two more in Khyber agency.
The volatile FATA leads with the most number of polio cases at 172, followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at 61.
The Sindh province has witnessed 27 polio cases, Balochistan 17 where three cases emerged in Punjab in 2014.
The number of polio cases detected so far this year in the country is four times as many as the same period last year.
In the country, a total of 103 polio cases were reported in 2003, 53 in 2004, 28 in 2005, 40 in 2006, 32 in 2007, 117 in 2008, 89 in 2009, 114 in 2010, 198 in 2011, 58 in 2012 and 72 in 2013.
Pakistan is one of the three countries in the world – other two are Afghanistan and Nigeria – where polio remains endemic but efforts to eradicate it have been badly hit in recent years by attacks on polio vaccination teams.
