Pakistan has confirmed its 12th wild poliovirus case in 2025, with the virus infecting a child in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to the Ministry of National Health Services.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad confirmed the virus. It found the virus in stool samples of a 33-month-old boy. He lives in Union Council Shamsikhel in Bannu district. The ministry released this information in a statement on Friday.
This case is the sixth from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year. So far, Pakistan has recorded 12 polio cases in 2025. These include four from Sindh, one from Punjab, and one from Gilgit-Baltistan.
The Pakistan Polio Eradication Program launched three nationwide campaigns this year. These took place in February, April, and May.
The campaigns reached over 45 million children under five, the ministry said.
Health authorities urged parents to ensure all children receive multiple oral polio vaccine doses. They said the vaccine protects children from the incurable and potentially paralysing disease. Xinhua News Agency reported this appeal.
Pakistan reported 74 polio cases in 2024, official data shows. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says polio is a highly infectious virus. It mostly affects children under five.
The virus spreads through the faecal-oral route or, less often, through contaminated water or food. It multiplies in the intestine and can reach the nervous system, causing paralysis.
In 1988, the World Health Assembly launched the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. National governments, WHO, Rotary International, CDC, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gavi lead this effort.
Since 1988, wild poliovirus cases have dropped by over 99 per cent. They fell from 350,000 cases in 125 countries to just six in 2021. Of the three virus strains, type 2 was eradicated in 1999 and type 3 in 2020. As of 2022, only Pakistan and Afghanistan still report wild poliovirus type 1 cases.
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