The News Minute | August 2, 2014 | 01:08 pm IST
Islamabad: Two new polio cases has been detected in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), a media report said on Saturday.
Health officials said that one-year-old Salma Bibi from Peshawar's Nasab Colony had not received even a single dose of oral polio vaccine (OPV), Dawn online reported.
“She has not been administered OPV because of her mother’s unwillingness,” the officials said.
According to the officials, Bibi's mother didn't open the door for vaccinators as per her husband's instructions.
Similarly, Hafsa from Khyber Agency remained unvaccinated due to her parents’ defiance to let OPV administered to their child.
People in the tribal areas are under misconception that vaccination was forbidden in Islam, the an official said.
The total number of polio cases detected in Pakistan this year has risen to 104.
The vaccination campaigns in Khyber Agency has been affected since the Taliban banned immunisation in November 2012.
It has been difficult for health workers in tribal areas to vaccinate children due to the wrath of Taliban militants, health officials said.
Pakistan has recorded the highest number of polio cases among the other two endemic countries, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
An estimated 160,000 children have not been vaccinated since 2012.
With IANS