Polio Cases Rise in Pakistan, Total Reaches 12 This Year
New Delhi: Pakistan has confirmed its 12th case of wild poliovirus this year, with the latest infection reported in a child from the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to the Ministry of National Health Services.
In a statement issued on Friday, the ministry said that the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad detected the virus in stool samples collected from a 33-month-old boy. The child is a resident of Union Council Shamsikhel in Bannu district.
This is the sixth polio case reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2025. According to official data, the country has so far recorded 12 polio cases this year – six from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four from Sindh, one from Punjab, and one from Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Pakistan Polio Eradication Program has carried out three nationwide immunisation campaigns this year in February, April, and May. These campaigns have reached over 45 million children under the age of five, the ministry said.
Health officials urged parents and caregivers to ensure that children receive multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine. “The oral polio vaccine provides effective protection against the incurable and potentially paralysing disease,” Xinhua news agency reported.
In 2024, Pakistan reported a total of 74 polio cases, according to official figures.
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that polio is a highly infectious viral disease that primarily affects children under five years of age. It is transmitted through person-to-person contact, mainly via the faecal-oral route, and less commonly through contaminated food or water. The virus multiplies in the intestine and can invade the nervous system, causing paralysis.
In 1988, the World Health Assembly launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, supported by national governments, WHO, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UNICEF, and later joined by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Since 1988, global polio cases have dropped by over 99 per cent — from an estimated 350,000 cases in over 125 endemic countries to just six cases reported in 2021. Of the three strains of wild poliovirus (types 1, 2, and 3), type 2 was declared eradicated in 1999, and type 3 in 2020. As of 2022, only wild poliovirus type 1 remains endemic in two countries: Pakistan and Afghanistan.
(With the inputs from IANS)
Jyoti Kumari joined Medical Dialogues in 2025 as a Journalism Intern. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communication from the Delhi School of Journalism, University of Delhi. She is passionate about news reporting, content creation, social media, and emerging media trends.