MIRAMSHAH: Four new polio cases were confirmed in the militancy-riddled North Waziristan Agency by the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, on Thursday, according to health officials.
They said that North Waziristan Agency accounted for 26 of the total 33 cases registered nationwide in 2014 so far. They said that all children tested positive for the crippling disease hadn’t received any dose of the oral polio vaccine due to Taliban’s ban on vaccination since June 2012.
The newly-infected children, included Zahid Rehman, Sidra Bibi, Said Rehman and Mohammad Rahim. About 160,000 children are at the risk of contracting the disease in the tribal agency, which had recorded 36 polio cases, the highest by any district or agency of Pakistan’s total 93 cases in 2013.
A total of 29 polio cases have been confirmed in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, three in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Karachi.