UPPER DIR: A minor boy in remote Doon Seri area of Kohistan valley has been diagnosed with polio, the first case detected after eight years in the Upper Dir district.

Local health department officials said the boy was brought to the district headquarters hospital in April and was admitted.

After being declared the suspected carrier of poliovirus the boy’s samples were sent to the National Institute of Health in Islamabad for confirmation.

Expended Programme on Immunisation district coordinator Dr Rahatullah confirmed the polio case.

He said 17-month-old Murad of Seri Kalkot had been diagnosed with the type-2 case.

He said he was brought to the DHQ hospital in April and after investigations his poliovirus test had been sent to NIH.

The EPI coordinator said the boy’s test report arrived the other day.

Dr Rahat said it was the first case in eight years in Upper Dir where the last polio case had been reported in 2012.

District health officer Dr Fayyaz Ali told Dawn that the EPI coordinator along with a health team had been sent to the area to investigate other children of the family and the minors in the nearby houses.

The DHO said according to the polio vaccination record the boy was immunised against polio for 15 months regularly.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2020