ISLAMABAD, Feb 2: One-year-old Sajid Khan will never be able to lead a normal life as he has been infected with Polio Virus (Type-P1). It is, in fact, a high price the little boy has paid for being born to a family settled in the militancy plagued tribal region.

Officials working for the National Institute of Health (NIH) here on Monday told Dawn Sajid, a son of Bacha Khan, became the third victim of the crippling virus this year, as the Regional Polio Virology Lab confirmed the case.

Due to the ongoing “war against terrorism,” polio vaccination teams were not able to enter his village somewhere in Mohmand Agency to administer him the vital oral polio vaccine.

Sajid’s family has moved to Shabqadar village in Charsadda due to the fighting in Mohmand Agency, but even this village is now not accessible to the polio control authorities in the wake of the prevailing security situation.

Detection of this case from NWFP has taken the total number of confirmed polio cases from the north-western region to two. The other case had links to Pir Qala in Charsadda. Punjab reported the first polio case of 2009 from Sialkot last month.

According to an estimate, 1.2 million children remained unvaccinated over the last many months in different parts of the NWFP and Fata, including Swat, Khyber, Mohmand, Bajaur and Waziristan agencies. A lot of these children will remain unvaccinated in the days to come due to the ongoing clashes between the security forces and the militants.

Replying to a question regarding parents’ refusal to get their children vaccinated, an official working for the polio control programme said: “The case of Sajid clearly shows that there are some areas where we faced refusals, but portraying a picture that each and every missed child in NWFP is such a case is simply exaggerating the situation, parents are wise enough to make the right decision for the future of their children.”

According to international experts, Pakistan is currently ranked the best among the polio endemic countries in the world, as during the last year India reported 550 polio cases while Nigeria hit a massive 750 cases.

Another factor that makes Pakistan’s polio eradication initiative the best is the accurate information to know about the roots of the deadly polio virus. At present, Pakistan has three virus transmission zones, one in Fata, second in Karachi and the third in southern Punjab.