LANDI KOTAL, June 9: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed concern over emergence of polio cases in Khyber Agency, saying that circulation of the virus will continue unabated as long as anti-polio programmes continue to miss a significant number of children either due to insecurity or poor quality campaign.

“We need to administer oral polio vaccines to every child below five years of age to safeguard them against the crippling disease,” head of WHO Polio Eradication Section Dr Elias Durry told Dawn. Cases in Federally Administered Tribal Areas again demonstrate the mammoth risk of not reaching every child in Fata, he said.

Khyber Agency last week registered its 8th case, most by any of the 10 infected districts/agencies in the country.

Zabia, a 23-month-old daughter of Noor Jan, a resident of Akakhel tehsil of Tirah in Khyber Agency, was the latest case recorded in the agency where the world health agency says 150,000 children had not been immuised against polio.

Zabia didn’t receive any dose of oral polio vaccine, as the area where she lived was not visited by any vaccination team since September 2009 due to insecurity.

The WHO official said that environmental surveillance system had clearly proven persistent circulation of wild poliovirus in cities like Lahore and Rawalpindi in Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and children in these areas stood vulnerable to the virus.

This is the 8th polio case reported from Khyber agency this year and the first from Tirah, while the other seven were reported from Bara.

Khyber Agency is the only area in Asia having both the wild poliovirus-1 and ‘3’ types and posed a huge threat to the efforts of polio eradication in the country (and globally), especially when there is ongoing large-scale population movement from Fata, particularly Khyber Agency, to other parts of the country.

“The essence of polio eradication is not only to have fewer cases, but to ensure that there is no virus circulating anywhere, including in environmental (sewage) samples,” he said.

Dr Azam Wazir, agency health official, said that “May, June and July are peak months for spread of poliovirus and Bara being a high risk area we are making all-out efforts to rein in this crippling disease,” he said.

He said that due to coordinated efforts the problem of inaccessibility was on the decline. “We are working in close liaison with various stakeholders and also encouraging participation of general public to overcome this menace,” he said. Meanwhile, the political administration arrested four health workers and withheld salaries of at least two others for dereliction of duty during the recent polio campaign in Jamrud and Landi Kotal.

Officials said that they had also sent health teams to the far-flung areas of Bagh and Maidan in Tirah valley. They said that though actual figures of vaccination were not yet available, but the three-day campaign went smoothly and without any resistance from any quarter.