By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: A newly confirmed case of polio in the Tank district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has pushed the country’s total number of cases this year to 18, signaling the stubborn obstacles that continue to thwart global efforts to wipe out the crippling disease, health officials said on Friday.
Pakistan remains one of just two nations worldwide, alongside Afghanistan, where polio is still endemic. Decades of international campaigns have brought the virus to the brink of extinction, but in Pakistan, progress has been stymied by a tangle of security threats, deep-seated vaccine hesitancy, and rampant misinformation.
The latest case, confirmed by the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad, involves a 10-month-old boy from Union Council Mullazai in Tank district. It marks the 11th polio case in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year, part of the nationwide tally of 18. Last year, Pakistan recorded 74 cases across the country, a figure that underscores both the scale of the challenge and the urgency of the response.
“The continued detection of polio cases underscores the persistent threat to children, particularly in areas with low vaccine acceptance,” the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme said in a press release. “It is crucial for communities to understand that poliovirus can re-emerge wherever immunity gaps persist.”
Polio, a highly infectious disease with no cure, can leave its victims, mostly young children, paralyzed for life. The only defence, health officials stress, lies in repeated doses of the oral polio vaccine, administered to every child under five during vaccination drives, coupled with a full slate of routine immunizations. Yet in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Tank, restricted access and logistical hurdles have hampered house-to-house vaccination efforts, leaving thousands of children unprotected.
Despite what the programme calls “significant improvements” in campaign quality nationwide, these gaps persist. Since September 2024, six vaccination drives, including four nationwide efforts, have reached more than 45 million children each time. Still, the virus finds footholds in vulnerable pockets.
To counter this, the National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) is planning an aggressive push: two nationwide campaigns and one sub-national effort between August and December, alongside targeted drives in high-risk districts. The goal, officials say, is to halt transmission and shield every child from the disease’s devastating effects.
The prime minister’s Focal Person on Polio Eradication, Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq, and NEOC Coordinator retired Captain Anwarul Haq, earlier this week, met with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Shahab Ali Shah in Peshawar to take stock of the fight. Their discussion zeroed in on campaign performance, current roadblocks, and tailored strategies to break the virus’s hold, especially in the province’s hard-hit southern districts.
Farooq pressed for solutions to “resolve persistent access barriers and ensure the uninterrupted presence and performance of frontline vaccinators in high-risk union councils.” Anwarul Haq, meanwhile, laid out a plan to bolster campaign quality and shore up routine immunization in the south, a region that has emerged as a stubborn epicenter.
A follow-up meeting, set for August 2-3 at the chief secretary’s office, will focus specifically on southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, aiming to refine the approach in this critical area.
The programme insists that wiping out polio is “a collective responsibility that requires unified efforts at all levels.” While vaccinators brave challenging conditions to deliver doses, success hinges on families and communities stepping up. “It is equally critical for parents and caregivers to ensure their children receive every dose of the polio vaccine,” the press release said, urging residents to combat misinformation and champion timely immunization.
The Tank case follows hard on the heels of three others confirmed last Saturday in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces. Earlier this year, in June, Health Minister Mustafa Kamal touted a decline of over 99 percent in polio cases, a testament to years of effort.
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