By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Two new poliovirus cases have been confirmed in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, pushing Pakistan’s 2025 case count to 23, health officials said Tuesday, highlighting the persistent challenges in eliminating the crippling disease in one of the world’s last two polio-endemic countries.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported that the cases involve a 16-month-old girl from Union Council Mullazai in Tank district and a 24-month-old girl from Union Council Miran Shah-3 in North Waziristan district, both in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a region that remains a stubborn hotspot for the virus.
“With these detections, Pakistan’s total polio cases in 2025 have reached 23, including 15 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six in Sindh, and one each in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan,” the NIH’s Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication said in a statement.
The laboratory, based in Islamabad, is a key centre for tracking the virus’s spread.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio, a highly infectious disease that can cause lifelong paralysis in young children, remains endemic. Global eradication efforts have slashed cases from hundreds of thousands annually in the 1980s to under 100 in recent years. But in Pakistan, security threats, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation have slowed progress, particularly in remote and conflict-prone areas.
The NIH stressed that “children in hard-to-access areas and those with low vaccine acceptance continue to be at risk.” The only effective defence, it said, is repeated doses of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) for children under 5 during campaigns, alongside routine immunisations. To counter the virus, the National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication has planned a nationwide vaccination drive from September 1 to 7, with a targeted campaign in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa starting September 15. These efforts aim to vaccinate over 28 million children under 5 to close immunity gaps in high-risk zones.
“The goal is to ensure every child in these districts is vaccinated against polio to rapidly strengthen immunity and address protection gaps,” the NIH statement said, urging parents to ensure their children receive the vaccine during these and future campaigns.
The new cases follow reports last week of a 6-year-old girl in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohistan district and a 21-month-old girl in Sindh’s Badin district testing positive. Adding to concerns, July environmental sampling found poliovirus in 36 percent of samples across 87 districts nationwide, indicating ongoing circulation. Health officials emphasized collective responsibility in the fight against polio.
“While frontline health workers deliver critical vaccines, parents and caregivers play a vital role by ensuring their children receive all recommended polio vaccine doses and complete routine immunizations,” the NIH said. It also called on communities to combat misinformation and support vaccination efforts.
Pakistan’s polio program has faced significant obstacles, including attacks on health workers and mistrust fuelled by false vaccine safety claims, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where militant activity has disrupted access.
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