New polio case in Balochistan

The confirmation of a new polio case, this time in the vast southwestern province of Balochistan, has raised concerns about the current anti-polio campaign.

The latest case appeared in a village near the town of Chaman, Killa Abdullah District, along the province's western border with Afghanistan. Afghanistan, like Pakistan, is one of the world's four remaining polio endemic countries, and health officials in Pakistan have complained of transmission of the virus across the border.

Aurangzeb Kamal, project officer for the Polio Programme in Balochistan, said a two-year-old boy, Zahoor, had been infected - a fact later confirmed by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad.

This brings to 14 the number of polio cases detected in Pakistan in 2008. It is the first case in Balochistan in 2008; three were reported there in 2007. Most cases this year have been in Sindh, though local health officials said some of these were migrants from the north of the country.

A meeting of international experts to discuss the polio situation in Pakistan is scheduled to start in Karachi on 24 June. It is expected a proposal may be made at the conference to raise the age limit for polio vaccination from five to 10 years.

“Ignorance”

One problem is that in some cases parents are refusing to have their children immunised: Kamal and other officials confirmed that Zahoor did not receive a dose of the anti-polio vaccine as his father had refused permission for his son to be given drops. Some groups, especially in parts of the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan where the influence of extremist groups is strong, believe the vaccine may cause infertility and is part of an anti-Muslim campaign by the West.

"It is unfortunate children suffer due to the ignorance of their parents," Nabiha Said, a Quetta-based doctor, told IRIN.

The federal and provincial governments have said they are determined to work to ensure such views do not impede the vaccination drive, but it will obviously take time to ensure every child can be protected from polio.

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