Pakistan confirms 13th polio case of 2025
Web Desk:
Islamabad: Pakistan on Friday reported its 13th polio case of the year after health authorities confirmed the virus in an 18-month-old girl from Union Council Amakhel in Tank district, South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The latest case was confirmed by the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Islamabad, which has also verified a previous case of wild poliovirus in a 33-month-old boy from Bannu district, also in KP.
With the inclusion of the latest case, the total number of infections reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year has risen to seven, the highest for any province.
According to the National Polio Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), access to some areas in southern KP remains limited, posing a major hurdle to house-to-house vaccination efforts.
“We are working closely with provincial and district administrations to reach every child,” the EOC said in a statement, urging parents to take the threat of poliovirus seriously and ensure their children receive polio drops during every campaign.
So far in 2025, the country has recorded four cases from Sindh, and one case each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan, in addition to the seven from KP.
Environmental surveillance results released by the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme last week further underscore the persistent circulation of the virus. Poliovirus was detected in sewage samples collected from seven districts: Quetta, Gwadar, South Waziristan (lower and upper), Larkana, Rawalpindi, and Mirpurkhas.
However, samples from Pishin and Lahore were declared virus-free — a rare positive note in the broader struggle.
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