Pakistan has reported its first polio case of 2025, with a 13-month-old lady from Tank district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa confirmed to have contracted the virus.
In line with sources on the Nationwide Reference Lab, the lady, who first exhibited signs of polio on November 25, has been recognized with Wild poliovirus kind 1.
In 2024, Pakistan recorded a complete of 68 polio circumstances, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounting for 21 of them. Balochistan reported 27 circumstances, Sindh had 19, whereas Punjab and Islamabad every reported one case.
Polio, a debilitating illness that causes irreversible paralysis and dying in some circumstances, has no remedy.
Nonetheless, it may be prevented by a number of doses of the oral polio vaccine. Guaranteeing that each one kids underneath the age of 5 are absolutely vaccinated is important to offering immunity in opposition to the virus.
In response to the resurgence of WPV1, the Pakistan Polio Program has carried out quite a few mass vaccination campaigns all year long.
These campaigns intention to succeed in kids at their doorsteps and guarantee full vaccination. The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) additionally gives free vaccinations in opposition to 12 childhood ailments at well being amenities throughout the nation.
In the meantime, the 12 months 2024 was probably the most difficult years for polio eradication efforts within the second greatest city centre of Sindh amid allegations of negligence and incompetence hounding authorities officers.
Repeated vaccination campaigns did not stamp out the crippling illness because the virus not solely persevered within the metropolis’s sewerage system but additionally disabled two kids for all times.
As per experiences, the involved officers did not take significant motion all year long to eradicate the virus.
As an alternative of addressing the problem head-on, the focal individuals on the district and regional ranges – working underneath the district commissioner and deputy commissioner – solely provided false assurances to high-ups, creating the phantasm of progress within the anti-polio combat.