Islamabad: Polio eradication authorities on Monday reported another polio case, this time from District Hyderabad, Sindh, raising the country’s total case count in 2025 to 27.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, verified the latest case after poliovirus was isolated from contacts of an eight-month-old female child who died before her own samples could be collected. Doctors had suspected polio due to her symptoms, and subsequent testing of close contacts confirmed the presence of the virus.
Officials at the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) Sindh said the baby girl was severely malnourished and had congenital heart disease. They added that she had been suffering from diarrhea for the past month, which further weakened her condition. The case was reported from Hyderabad’s Preetabad area, where poliovirus circulation has already been detected through environmental surveillance.
With this development, Sindh has now reported seven polio cases this year. The majority of infections remain concentrated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which accounts for 18 of the total. Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan have each reported one case.
Public health officials expressed concern that the girl’s death highlights both the risks of delayed detection and the continued transmission of the virus despite years of vaccination campaigns. “The confirmation through contact testing shows circulation is active in high-risk communities,” a health ministry source said.
Pakistan remains one of only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus is still endemic, with Afghanistan being the other. Experts warn that gaps in routine immunization, vaccine hesitancy, poor nutrition, and population movement continue to undermine eradication efforts.
The latest case underscores the urgency of upcoming vaccination drives in Sindh and other high-risk regions. Health workers, who already face security and access challenges, are being mobilized to ensure that every child receives multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine to stop further spread.
Despite setbacks, health authorities insist that eradication remains achievable. However, they acknowledge that cases such as the one in Hyderabad demonstrate how fragile progress is, particularly when children miss vaccinations or live in vulnerable conditions such as malnutrition and underlying illnesses.
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