Pakistan reports new polio case in northwest, raising nationwide tally to 50 cases this year
Associated PressISLAMABAD — Pakistan detected one more polio case in the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, raising the country’s tally of the infectious disease to 50 cases this year, officials said Wednesday. The latest case was detected in Tank, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where militants often target polio workers and police assigned for anti-polio campaigns, according to a statement by the National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication. Most polio cases this year were reported in the restive southwestern Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces bordering Afghanistan, where 23 confirmed cases have surfaced, according to data from the World Health Organization. Earlier this month, a bomb attached to a motorcycle exploded near a vehicle carrying police officers assigned to protect polio workers in Balochistan, killing nine people including five children.