ISLAMABAD: More than a year after Pakistan suspended an anti-polio campaign following the murder of a health worker and two cops, 41 polio cases have been reported across the country in the last six months alone.

This year’s figure is in sharp contrast to the 12 cases reported last year and only 8 in 2017.

Of the 41, the maximum number of afflicted children (33) are from the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, including the newly merged tribal districts bordering Afghanistan . Punjab and Sindh have reported three cases each, and Balochistan two.

Pakistan is one of the three countries in the world where polio is categorized as an endemic viral infection. Yet, parents – largely threatened by militants and influenced by clerics who suspect the vaccination drive to be a Western conspiracy to harm or sterilise Muslim children – refuse to inoculate their children.

Four new cases of polio were reported on Monday. According to government authorities, two cases were found in KP’s Bannu district, while two were reported from the restive southwestern Balochistan province.

In Bannu, the poliovirus was confirmed in a 12-month-old girl and in a 30-month-old boy. With the latest cases, the number of children detected with poliovirus in Bannu this year has risen to 16.

In Balochistan, officials associated with the polio eradication programme said an eight-month-old child fell prey to the crippling disease in Chaman. Health officials in Chaman described refusal by parents to inoculate their children as the underlying reason behind the fresh case.

Another case of polio was confirmed in a nine-month-old infant in Jaffarabad, prompting authorities in Balochistan to declare an emergency.

