June 10, 2012 - The National Institute of Health has confirmed another Type-1 wild poliovirus case from Khyber Agency in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) on June 10, 2012. Every single case from FATA and Khyber Agency poses a threat to polio eradication efforts at the national and global levels.

This is the 9th polio case from Khyber Agency and 7th from tehsil Bara this year. Khyber Agency is the only tribal agency/district in all of Asia with circulation of both types of wild poliovirus (Type-1 and Type-3) in 2012. This risk is magnified by the ongoing large-scale population displacement from FATA (and Khyber Agency) to other parts of the country.

The new case, 18-month old Mudassir, is son of Hakim and a resident of area Akka Khel of tehsil Bara in Khyber Agency. The child has not received any dose of oral polio vaccine (OPV) through routine or supplementary immunization activities.

Extraordinary measures need to be taken to deal with the threat of polio in Khyber Agency so that all children can urgently be accessed for vaccination; firewalling through transit vaccination posts is not enough to interrupt the wild poliovirus circulation. With the addition of another case, Pakistan’s national polio count has reached 22 so far this year.