Pakistan reports sixth polio case of 2025

Express Tribune

01-03-2025

A health worker administers anti-polio drops to a child, marking the launch of the latest anti-polio campaign in the city. PHOTO: JALAL QURESHI/EXPRESS
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The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed a polio case from District Thatta, Sindh, marking the fourth such case in the province and the sixth case in Pakistan for the year 2025, according to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Promgramme website.
This comes as part of a growing concern about the persistence of polio in certain regions of the country. Last year, 74 cases of polio were reported in Pakistan, with the majority coming from Balochistan (27 cases) and Sindh (23 cases). Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa reported 22 cases, while Punjab and Islamabad reported one case each.
Polio remains a crippling disease that causes paralysis and has no cure. Vaccination, especially for children under five, is the most effective way to prevent the spread of the virus.
Health authorities stress the importance of completing the full vaccination schedule to ensure high immunity in children, particularly in regions like Sindh where cases have been more frequent.
The Polio Programme has been actively rolling out vaccination campaigns across Pakistan, with the first nationwide polio campaign of 2025 reaching over 45 million children earlier this month.
Additionally, a targeted campaign in Quetta Division and Karachi took place from February 20 to 28, 2025, where around 900,000 children received both injectable and oral polio vaccines for an added immunity boost.
These efforts are part of the Big Catch-Up initiative, which is being implemented by the Expanded Programme on Immunization to immunize children against 12 preventable childhood diseases.
In a bid to address the potential cross-border transmission, a targeted vaccination activity was conducted in 104 union councils near Afghanistan or those hosting Afghan refugee populations. Over 600,000 children were vaccinated in this high-risk region.
The Polio Programme is calling on parents to ensure that their children are vaccinated against polio, underlining that every vaccination opportunity counts in the fight to eradicate the virus and prevent further cases of paralysis.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia reaffirmed its $500 million commitment to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), aimed at eradicating wild polio and controlling vaccine-derived polio outbreaks in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Monday.