Pakistan reports 19th polio case this year, child infected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

By Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported a new polio case on Tuesday, bringing this year’s total to 19, with a 5-month-old child in the northwestern Lakki Marwat district testing positive, health officials said.

The case in Union Council Sulemankhel marks the 12th in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province this year. The region, a hotbed of poliovirus transmission, continues to grapple with militancy, widespread vaccine skepticism, and logistical barriers.

For families in this remote border area, the diagnosis renews fears of a disease that has defied decades of containment efforts. Polio, a highly contagious virus with no cure, can leave victims paralysed for life. Repeated doses of the oral vaccine remain the sole defence for children under 5. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries where the disease remains endemic, and full immunisation coverage remains a distant goal.

The country once slashed polio cases from roughly 20,000 annually in the early 1990s to a low of one in 2021. Yet 2024 brought a troubling spike, with 74 cases recorded.

Health officials warn that the uptick threatens to unravel years of fragile gains. In southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, security risks limit access, while a shortage of female vaccinators, key to reaching conservative households, hampers door-to-door campaigns.

Misinformation, such as claims that vaccines are a Western conspiracy to sterilise Muslim children, coupled with militant attacks on vaccination teams, deepens the crisis, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. To counter the surge, authorities will launch a nationwide vaccination drive on September 1, zeroing in on high-risk areas like southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The campaign targets all children under 5 to curb the virus’s spread.

Over the past year, Pakistan’s Polio Eradication Initiative has vaccinated more than 45 million children per round across six drives. Plans for 2025 include two nationwide campaigns, one regional push, and focused efforts in at-risk districts between September and December.

In early August, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chief Secretary led a high-level meeting to craft district-specific strategies, producing a blueprint aimed at a polio-free province. Officials emphasise that eradication hinges on collective action: Health workers must deliver vaccines, parents must immunize their children, and communities must combat falsehoods. Each new case, they say, underscores the stakes for Pakistan’s youth and the pressing need to vaccinate every child.