Islamabad: The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has confirmed another wild poliovirus (WPV1) case from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, taking the country’s total count for 2025 to 30.
According to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, the latest case has been detected in a 12-month-old boy from Union Council Ghari in District Torghar, KP.
This is the second case reported from Torghar this year, underlining that the virus continues to circulate in some high-risk districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa despite extensive immunization drives.
With this detection, the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa now accounts for 19 of the total 30 cases reported in 2025. Sindh has recorded nine cases, while Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan have reported one case each.
Officials said the new case was confirmed by the NIH’s Regional Reference Laboratory, which continues to play a critical role in identifying virus transmission through both clinical and environmental surveillance.
They noted that Pakistan’s polio surveillance system is one of the largest in the world, monitoring stool samples from acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) cases and sewage from dozens of districts every month.
Environmental surveillance shows persistent virus presence
In September 2025, the program collected 127 sewage samples from 87 districts across Pakistan to detect poliovirus circulation. Of these, 81 samples tested negative, while 44 were found positive for WPV1. Two samples are still under laboratory testing.
Province-wise, Sindh reported the highest number of positive environmental samples—21—followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 10, Punjab with 8, Balochistan with 2, Islamabad with 1, and Gilgit-Baltistan with 1. No virus was found in sewage samples from Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Officials said that while the number of positive detections has declined compared to previous months, the virus remains entrenched in a few urban and hard-to-reach areas, particularly in southern KP and parts of Karachi.
“Recent high-quality vaccination campaigns have started to show an impact, with fewer positive detections in some traditional reservoirs. But sustained, targeted action is essential to fully interrupt transmission,” an official involved with the polio program said.
The polio program has been intensifying efforts to reach every child under five through repeated door-to-door campaigns and cross-border coordination with Afghanistan. The next nationwide campaign is expected later this month, focusing on districts where the virus continues to surface.
Health experts reiterated that every child must receive multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine to build immunity and protect against paralysis. They warned that even one missed child could keep the virus alive and threaten the progress made toward eradication.
Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus transmission has never been interrupted, although both have made significant strides in reducing cases through synchronized vaccination and surveillance efforts.
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