Pakistan has reported two additional cases of poliovirus, confirmed by the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad.
The affected children are from Sindh, with one case originating in the Badin district and the other in the Thatta district. This brings the total number of polio cases in the country for 2025 to 29, which includes 18 cases from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, in collaboration with the Expanded Program on Immunisation (EPI), had carried out a vaccination campaign in 25 districts of Sindh from September 1 to 7.
The campaign had initially targeted 2.1 million children, but a significant number of children in Sindh, particularly Karachi, remained unvaccinated, the sources said.
Nearly 35,000 parents in Sindh have reportedly refused to get their children vaccinated against poliovirus, with the majority of refusals reported from Karachi. Meanwhile, a decline in vaccine refusals was reportedly witnessed in KP.
The new country-wide anti-polio campaign will be held from October 13 to 19, according to the National EOC. It added that more than 45.4 million children will be administered polio drops during the drive.
Pakistan is one of the two polio-endemic countries in the world, along with Afghanistan. The country was near to eradicating the crippling disease in 2021 after significant drop in number of cases, until the recent spike in cases.
Last year, Pakistan reported a total of 74 polio cases. Of these, 27 were from Balochistan, 23 from Sindh, 22 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
Polio is a paralysing disease with no cure, and the completion of the routine vaccination for all children under the age of five just provides them with high immunity against this terrible disease.
