PESHAWAR, Sept 29: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reported another polio case, taking this year’s tally of the fresh sufferers of the crippling disease to 15.

The relevant provincial health officials told Dawn on Saturday that 15 months old Bilal Khan, a resident of Sangao village in Achini Union Council of Peshawar, had tested positive for polio.

They said the child received only two doses of oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that, too, in July when vaccination campaign began in his area, which couldn’t be accessed by health workers previously due to lawlessness in the nearby Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency.

After the surfacing of the fresh polio case, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has strengthened the union council polio eradication committees (UCPECs) across the province to ensure vaccination of all children under five, according to an official.

“The cope with the situation, the government has made a programme for strengthening the campaign at UC level to ensure that all children of immunisable age receive OPV,” he said.

When contacted, provincial health secretary Ishfaq Khan said polio eradication had been declared a national emergency by the federal government and therefore, special measures had been taken to reach all children under five for immunisation.

“We’ve fully implemented the Augmented National Emergency Action Plan to ensure our children’s immunisation. We’re fully committed to the eradication of polio from the province, as we want to protect children against disabilities,” he said.

The secretary said the government had allocated Rs35.15 million for strengthening UCPECs to create demand for vaccination in collaboration with local authorities.

He said the chief minister and chief secretary had taken keen interest in efforts meant to spread immunisation activities across the province.

Mr Ishfaq said the health officials had pushed WHO officials, who came in from Geneva last week, for more anti-polio support in the province.

He said the government had planned two immunisation campaigns every month to cover more and more children and that besides national immunisation days, more immunisation efforts would get underway next month.

He said district polio control rooms had been set up in every district to monitor the anti-polio situation.

“We, in collaboration with district governments, have been trying to increase public awareness of the vaccines’ importance.

We’ve made district coordination officers accountable for anti-polio drives in their respective districts,” he said.

The secretary said the government had an unshaken resolve to eradicate polio from the province at all costs and that it’s that commitment, which had reduced polio incidence.

Mr Ishfaq said support of other partner organisation like WHO and Unicef against polio had been vital.

“Their support has brought the country closer to the polio elimination stage. Our polio eradication initiative has been quite successful and we are hopeful that the country will be polio-free in near future,” he said.