Islamabad sources stated that a health official said the total number of polio cases reported in pakistan this year has increased to 72, with two more children testing positive for the crippling disease and the two new cases were detected in Sindh and Balochistan. The official said "Countrywide, 72 polio cases have been reported this year, out of which 53 cases are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, eight from Sindh, six from Balochistan and five from Punjab”.
Furthermore emergency Operation Centre (EOC) officials have planned "aggressive campaigns" from next month to June 2020, "aiming to eradicate polio from the environment". Reportedly the EOC and medical bodies such as the pakistan Paediatric Association strongly recommended parents to cooperate with polio teams.
Moreover the World health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Polio Eradication has said that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a major barrier to polio eradication efforts in Pakistan. It termed the situation caused by the parallel polio structure in the province ‘crises'. Perhaps there are only two countries in the world, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where polio cases are still reported. Apparently pakistan remains under a polio-linked travel restriction imposed by the WHO due to which since 2014 every person travelling aboard has to carry a polio vaccination certificate.
