Two new cases of polio increase in Pakistan’s 2025 to 26

• Both cases include young girls under two years of age.
• 51 of 126 sewage samples are positively testing at the national level in August.
• Karachi records half of Sindh’s 24 positive environmental areas.
  

ISLAMABAD: The Regional Reference Laboratory for the Elimination of Polio Liturgy at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, confirmed two new cases of polio by KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, increasing the country’s match for 2025 to 26.

The workshop said the latter cases include a 19 -month -old girl from the Mir Ali Union Council in the North Waziristan area and a 11 -month -old girl from the Suleman Khelis Council in Lakki Marwat.

With these detections, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa represents 18 of the total cases mentioned this year, followed by Sindh with six and one in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan, the regional lab added.

Polio is an extremely infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repetitive doses of the oral polio vaccine (OPV) for each child under five during each campaign, along with the timely completion of all usual immunerations.

Despite significant progress, the ongoing detection of polio cases, especially in southern KP, remains serious concern. He emphasizes that children in difficult access areas and those with low acceptance of the vaccine are still at risk.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani polio surveillance system examined 126 environmental samples from 87 areas in August. Of these, 75 samples were declared negative, while 51 were positive for polio.

Sindh recorded the highest percentage of positive samples with 24, followed by Punjab with 14, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 10 and one in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad. Incredibly, Balokistan showed a significant decrease in positive places, from 19 in January to only one in August, the regional laboratory added.

Last month, two new cases of polio were confirmed by South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa – one by District Tank and the other by District North Waziristan.

The cases included a 16-month-old girl from the Mullazai Union Council, District Tank and a 24-month-old girl from the Miran Shah-3 Union Council, District North Waziristan.