ISLAMABAD, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- A six-month-old boy has been paralyzed by wild poliovirus in South Waziristan district of Pakistan's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (KP), the 19th case in the country this year, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
The child had onset of paralysis on Aug. 22, the Pakistan National Polio Laboratory at the National Institute of Health confirmed on Thursday, according to a statement from the ministry.
This was the first case from South Waziristan this year. All the cases in Pakistan this year were detected in KP, with two patients from Lakki Marwat, 16 from North Waziristan and one from South Waziristan district.
Controlling the outbreak in KP remains the focus of the Pakistan Polio Program, the ministry said.
"The humanitarian crisis in the wake of floods poses graver challenges to polio eradication efforts as we grapple with the displacement of millions of people. This mass displacement will lead to the spread of wild poliovirus making it even more important to vaccinate children against polio," Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel was quoted as saying in the statement. ■