Suspected polio case reported from Thore Valley, Diamer
Chilas: A new suspected polio case in a 14-month old child has been reported in major national dailies. The child lives in the Thore Valley of District Diamer, Giglit-Baltistan, which has been declared a polio-free region in the past.
A team of reporters from Chilas, the district headquarters visited the child’s family, to investigate the suspected polio case that has made national headlines.
The boy’s father told the local reporters that he has vaccinated his child against polio regularly. He has said that an arm and a leg of the child are not functional, and that he has taken his son to hospitals in Chilas, Gilgit and Abbottabad, where doctors have given him medicines for two months. The child’s father has claimed that his son’s condition has improved due to the medicines. The child’s father told the reporters that none of the doctors he consulted has told him about the presence of polio virus in his son.
After the father’s statement, the locals have urged the GB Health Department and the World Health Organisation to check the case again and make the reality public.
It is pertinent to note that the Gilgit-Batlistan government regularly conducts vaccination campaigns in the region. The department of health has on several occasions declared the GB region to be polio-free.
Photo: Shafi Ullah Qureshi
