Polio is on the rise in Pakistan, health officials said Wednesday, as the number of infections in 2013 passed the total for the whole of 2012. Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where the highly infectious disease which cripples limbs remains endemic.
Opposition from militant groups has hampered efforts to vaccinate children against polio in Pakistan and officials said violence was part of the reason for the increase in cases. "Last year there were a total of 58 cases, but 62 fresh victims of polio have already been reported in 2013," a senior government official, who works with international donors working to eradicate polio, told AFP.
Six cases were in eastern Punjab province, four in Sindh in the south and nine in north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, but by far the bulk of the infections - 43 - were in the tribal areas along the Afghan border. The Pakistani Taliban banned polio vaccinations in the tribal region of Waziristan last year, alleging the campaign was a cover for espionage.
"The main reason for the outbreak is militancy in the north-west. Vaccination teams are unable to reach the tribal areas because of risks to their lives," the official said. Elsewhere in the country, health workers giving out polio drops have been attacked and killed, including in the largest city Karachi. On Monday the World Health Organisation linked an outbreak of polio in Syria that has paralysed 13 children to a strain of the virus from Pakistan.
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