Peshawar:
A new case of wild poliovirus was reported in the district of Bannu in the Khyber -Pakhtunkhwa (KP) – the sixth in the province in 2025 – bringing the national count to 12, health officials announced on Friday.
The infected child belongs to the Council of the Union Shams Khel in the district of Bannu in southern KP – a health official in the region described as the country’s most vulnerable polio zone, where bad access and resistance to vaccines continue to hinder eradication efforts.
Earlier this month, the health authorities confirmed a case of wild poliovirus in the Gilgit-Baltistan district-the first moment of this type reported in the region.
So far this year, Sindh has reported four cases, the Punjab and the Gilgit-Baltistan each, the remaining six emerging from various districts from the south of the KP. The resurgence underlines the persistent immunity gaps, in particular in rural areas and difficult to reach.
Read: Poliovirus detected in the Hyderabad sample
In 2025, three national polio vaccination campaigns were carried out, during which nearly 45 million children under the age of five received oral declines. More than 400,000 leading workers, including 225,000 women volunteers, participated in efforts.
Health officials have urged parents to make sure their children receive each dose, warning that polio remains incurable and can only be prevented by vaccination. They pointed out that even a single missed dose leaves a child vulnerable to deadly paralysis.
Pakistan is one of the two remaining countries in the world where polio is always classified as an endemic viral infection, the other being Afghanistan.
