Pakistan records one more polio case, tally reaches 19 for 2025

Peshawar: The 19th polio case for 2025 was confirmed in Pakistan after a five-month-old child tested positive for the virus in the northwestern Province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, officials said on Thursday.

The National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad on Wednesday confirmed that the latest infection marks the 12th polio case in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and takes the total for the country to 19.

The five-month-old child is from the Suleman Khel Union Council of Ghazni Khel Tehsil, Lakki Marwat district and tested positive for the virus on Wednesday, the NIH said.

It was further revealed that the child had not received the routine polio immunisation and was only administered a single supplementary dose.

This marks the third polio case reported from Lakki Marwat district in 2025, compared to two cases in 2024.

Of the other cases, five are from Sindh province and there are one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.

A special vaccination campaign was held from July 21-27 in the bordering area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan to coincide with Afghanistan’s sub-national polio campaign.

Despite significant improvements in the quality of polio vaccination campaigns nationwide, the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remained a key area of concern due to restricted access, lack of female vaccinators and operational challenges in conducting house-to-house vaccination, according to the polio programme.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remained endemic, according to the World Health Organisation.

Pakistan reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021, however, the country witnessed an intense resurgence of the poliovirus in 2024, with 74 cases reported.

Efforts to eradicate the virus have been repeatedly undermined by vaccine misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners who claimed that immunisation is a foreign plot to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western espionage.

Militant groups have frequently targeted polio vaccination teams and the security personnel assigned to protect them, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan.