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A new polio case has been confirmed in Sindh's Hyderabad district, taking the nationwide tally to 27 this year and total cases in Sindh to seven, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Monday, Dawn reported.
Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic. Despite global efforts to eradicate the virus, challenges such as security issues, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation have slowed progress. According to a statement from the NIH, "With this detection, the total number of polio cases in Pakistan in 2025 has reached 27 - including 18 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, seven from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan," as per Dawn. NIH added that, "Polio Eradication conducted a Sub-National Polio Vaccination Campaign in September 2025 across 88 districts of the country including Hyderabad." The campaign immunised "approximately 21 million children under the age of five," NIH said. The next polio immunisation campaign will run from October 13 to 19 and aims to target 45.5m children. "More than 4,00,000 dedicated frontline polio workers will go door-to-door to ensure that every child is reached," NIH said. The new case comes over a week after two fresh polio virus cases were detected in the south of KP. Out of the two, one of the cases was detected in North Waziristan's Mir Ali tehsil in a 19-month-old infant, while the other case was confirmed in an 11-month-old infant in Lakki Marwat's Suleman Khel tehsil. In 2024, the country reported at least 71 polio cases, with the virus detected in around 90 districts, as per Dawn. Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated doses of the oral polio vaccine for every child under five during each campaign, along with the timely completion of all essential immunisations, Dawn reported. (ANI)
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