Islamabad:
A new case of polio has been reported in the Northern Waziristan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the Regional Reference Laboratory for the Eradication of Polio at the National Health Institute (NIH) Islamabad on Tuesday.
A 19-month-old boy from the Union Miranshah-3 Council, North Waziristan, was confirmed as the eighth KP polio affair this year. With the latter cases, the total number of polio cases in Pakistan in 2025 is now 14, including eight from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four from Sindh, and one from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Polio is a very infectious and incurable disease that can cause life paralysis. The only effective protection is repeated doses of the polio vaccine for each child under the age of five during each campaign, as well as timely completion of all essential immunizations.
While efforts at the national level to eradicate polio continue to improve the quality of vaccination campaigns, southern KP districts remain a major concern due to limited access and challenges in the realization of home vaccinations in house.
These obstacles lead to missed occasions, leaving thousands of non -vaccinated and vulnerable children to poliovirus.
A special vaccination activity was carried out in six union advice from Bannu from June 23 to 28, during which 17,485 children received the vaccine. A similar targeted vaccination campaign is scheduled for 11 union councils in northern Waziristan.
In addition, preparations are underway for a large -scale special vaccination campaign in southern KP, scheduled for August.
