Islamabad, October 21 (IANS). A new case of polio has been reported in Torghar district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, taking the total number of polio cases so far in 2025 to 30. This information has been given by the Polio Lab of National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad.
According to NIH report, polio virus has been found in a 12-month-old child, who is a resident of Gari Union Council of Torghar.
Among these polio cases, maximum 19 cases are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Apart from this, 9 cases have been reported from Sindh and one case each from Punjab and Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan. This situation is once again raising concerns over the polio eradication programme, especially at a time when almost all countries in the world have completely eliminated polio.
The Pakistan Polio Program had collected 127 sewage samples from 87 districts across the country in the month of September to investigate where the polio virus was spreading. Of these, virus was not found in 81 samples, but polio virus was confirmed in 44 samples. The reports of two samples are yet to come. It is clear from these data that polio virus is still active in many areas and its danger has not gone away.
It is noteworthy that at present Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries left where wild polio virus (naturally spreading polio virus) has still not been completely eradicated. Efforts to eradicate polio in Pakistan have been going on for many years, but these efforts have been hampered many times due to security problems, vaccine hesitancy and misinformation. In 2024, 71 polio cases were reported in the country and the virus was found in about 90 districts that year.
Another major problem that poses a serious threat to the polio campaign is the frequent attacks on polio teams. Recently, on October 15, unknown assailants opened fire on a police constable deployed to protect the polio team in Nizampur area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Constable Maqsood died in this attack. He was a resident of Kheshgi village in Khyber district.
According to the police, constable Maqsood was attacked when a female health worker was giving polio doses to children in a house. The attackers fled after the incident.
A day before this, on October 14, another similar tragic accident took place in Swat district. A constable deployed there to protect the polio team was shot. Swat District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Umar Khan said that the constable was on his duty along with two female health workers when the sudden attack took place.
–IANS
PK/AS
