Despite ongoing national efforts to eradicate the disease, health officials reported three more instances of polio on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections in 2025 to 17.
An infectious virus that primarily affects youngsters, polio can cause paralysis that lasts a lifetime. According to medical experts, routine immunization and many doses of the oral polio vaccine can effectively prevent the disease, even though there is no cure.
Pakistan is one of just two nations, along with Afghanistan, where polio is still rampant. The nation has made significant progress in managing the illness over the last few decades, bringing the number of yearly cases down from about 20,000 in the early 1990s to a small number by 2018.
Recent patterns, though, have sparked worries. Pakistan saw a concerning reversal in 2024, when 74 cases were documented, compared to just six in 2023 and one in 2021.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad confirmed the most recent three cases, according to Pakistan’s National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC). The infections were found in the districts of Umerkot in Sindh and Lakki Marwat and North Waziristan in South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Among the patients are a five-year-old boy from Umerkot, a six-month-old child from North Waziristan, and a 15-month-old girl from Lakki Marwat.
Ten incidents have been reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa so far in 2025, followed by five in Sindh and one each in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The NEOC cautioned that these additional cases underscore the continued threat to children who have not received vaccinations, especially in regions where vaccine hesitancy endures, despite tremendous efforts to eradicate the virus.
“Wherever immunity gaps persist, poliovirus remains a threat,” the center stated. “Any child who is not vaccinated is at risk and may spread the disease to others.”
An anti-polio campaign is currently taking place in union councils close to the Afghan border from July 21 to July 27 in an effort to combat this. Furthermore, vaccination campaigns employing the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) and Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) started in Chaman, Balochistan, on July 21 and will spread to six additional districts starting on July 28.
Parents are being asked to make sure their children receive the doses they need in order to properly help frontline polio teams.
