IKRAM JUNAIDI
ISLAMABAD: Even as Pakistan is trying to build a case for the removal of polio-related travel restrictions for its citizens, two more cases of the poliovirus were detected, one in Punjab and the other in Karachi, taking the total number of cases reported this year to 38.
Polio cases in Punjab are rare and Thursday’s detection of a case in the Choa Saidan Shah area of Chakwal district is the first instance this year. Karachi too has been polio-free since October last year.
According to an official, a six-year-old boy has been diagnosed with polio in Chakwal, while the girl from Karachi is an 18-month-old resident of Shafiq Colony.
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Dr Rana Safdar, head of the Emergency Operations Centre for Polio, said the child who tested positive for the poliovirus in Chakwal had received 10 doses of the polio vaccine.
Talking about the victim from Karachi, she said the girl hails from a Pashtun family and had only received two or three doses of the polio vaccine.
Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2015