Polio virus fails to paralyze young boy

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Experts are shocked after a young boy from Punjab, who was diagnosed with the polio virus, was not paralyzed from the virus.

The Polio Virology Laboratory at the National Institute of Health, Islamabad confirmed the first case of polio in Punjab in Pakistan on October 9th after almost 6-year old Farhan of Kotli Saydian village in Chakwal was diagnosed with the virus. When experts from the World Health Organization, Unicef and the Punjab health department reached the village to check up on the boy, they were shocked to see him normally walking, playing and running with healthy children.

Punjab Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Director Dr Munir Ahmed said he and other health officials investigated the case to determine as to why the disease did not cripple the young boy. They finally concluded that “the case shows the disease is heading to complete eradication.”

Dr. Munir noted that Farhan received nearly 15 doses of the vaccination, which might have contributed to his immunity against the symptom of paralysis of the disease.

Accordingly, a similar case occurred in the Bihar area of India in 2010, during the time when the country “was heading to complete eradication of polio.”

In this response to this first case of polio in Punjab, health officials have launched polio campaigns in seven districts of the province.

This article is originally published in Dawn

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