Pakistan has found two new instances of the poliovirus, the National Institute of Health (NIH) said on Monday. This year, 21 people in the country have been sick. There were more cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh, which means that the disease is continuing spreading.
The most recent victims include a six-year-old boy from Pattan Union Council in KP’s Kohistan district and a 21-month-old girl from UC Matli-2 in Sindh’s Badin district. Because of these results, there are now 13 cases of polio in KP, six in Sindh, and one each in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan in 2025.
Polio is still common in only two nations in the world, and Pakistan is one of them. Afghanistan is the other country. There are a lot of problems that make it challenging to keep fighting the infection. There are safety issues in high-risk locations, a lot of individuals don’t want to get vaccinated, and there are those trying to spread misleading information that makes people less likely to trust the government.
The NIH highlighted how important it is for every child under five to have the oral polio vaccination (OPV) again and again to protect them from the disease, which has no treatment and can leave them paralyzed for life.
The Pakistan Polio initiative has set up a vaccination program at the sub-national level to boost immunity and close any gaps in protection that are currently there. The program will run from September 1 to 7 and will help more than 28 million kids under five in 99 districts around the country. Starting on September 15, there will be a special campaign just for southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
This result comes out after 36% of sewage samples taken from 87 areas in July tested positive for poliovirus. This is a big warning that the illness is spreading swiftly. The current situation is a disturbing trend compared to past years, especially since the government reported 71 instances in 2024, with the virus discovered in about 90 places.