The efforts to eliminate polio are going nowhere as three more cases involving girls were reported in Balochistan, 24NewsHD TV channel said on Thursday.

The last polio case was reported in a four-year-old girl of Jaffarabad district, whose parents had refused to administer polio drops to their child.

According to the provincial health department, the poliovirus was found in an eight-month-old girl in Zhob. The remaining two children were a 13-month-old from Jhal Magsi and a four-and-half years old from Nasirabad.

A total of 47 polio cases have so far been reported in Pakistan since the start of the current year.

Pakistan has been witnessing an alarming rise in polio cases after it was close to eliminating the crippling virus in 2017.

The details of cases during last five years are: 54 in 2015, 20 in 2016, eight in 2017, 12 in 2018 and 146 in 2019.

Just like the past years, most number of cases are being reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where 19 children are infected by the virus during the current year. The total cases for 2019 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were 92.

An important fact to note is that all these cases have been recorded in the southern district of the province, the details of which are: Lakki Marwat 12, South Waziristan four, Karak two and North Waziristan one.

In Sindh, 17 cases have been recorded in the first four months of 2020 while a total of 30 were reported in 2019, which represents an alarming trend.

Meanwhile, only one new polio case has been reported in Punjab so far against the 12 recorded last year.

On the other hand, Balochistan has seen 10 cases so far against the figures of 12 in 2020.