PESHAWAR: Pakistan has confirmed two new polio cases in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bringing the total number of children affected by the crippling virus this year to 23, health authorities said on Tuesday.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic. Pakistan made significant progress in curbing the virus, with annual cases dropping from around 20,000 in the early 1990s to just eight in 2018. Pakistan reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021, but the country saw a sharp resurgence in 2024 with 74 cases recorded.
Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated doses of the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) for every child under five during each campaign, alongside timely completion of all routine immunizations.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has confirmed two new poliovirus cases from South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one from District Tank and the other from District North Waziristan,” the National Emergency Operations Center for Polio Eradication said in a statement.
The cases include a 16-month-old girl from Union Council Mullazai in District Tank and a 24-month-old girl from Union Council Miran Shah-3 in District North Waziristan.
