A 17-month-old boy is the latest victim of the crippling polio disease in Pakistan, taking the total number of cases registered this year to 40, officials said.
The latest case has been reported from semi-tribal Frontier Region of Peshawar in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of the country.
According to an official of the Ministry of National Health Services, a 17-month boy was found infected with the deadly polio disease.
"With the new case, the total number of polio cases in 2015 has reached 40," he said.
So far 15 cases have been reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 13 from tribal region, six from Balochistan, five from Sindh and one from Punjab.
The northwestern region is considered as hotbed of polio virus and efforts to eliminate its threat has been thwarted by Taliban militants who regularly attack polio health workers.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world which have not been able to eradicate the polio-virus while no case of polio virus was reported in Nigeria over a year.
