Three of four cases are from Bannu Division, where security constraints have left children without vaccination
PESHAWAR:
Pakistan reported its fourth polio case of the year after a new infection was detected in Bannu district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication (NEOC) said in a statement on Friday.
The country’s first polio case of 2026 was detected in early March in a four-year-old from Sujawal district in Sindh, according to the NEOC. Two further cases were reported in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in early May, with one each from Bannu and North Waziristan, taking the national total to three at the time.
The affected child was from Nurar Union Council in Miryan tehsil in Bannu where vaccination teams had not been able to reach children consistently since 2025 because of lack of security, according to the polio authority. “Three of this year’s four cases are from Bannu Division, where security-related access constraints have resulted in children missing critical vaccination, allowing wild poliovirus to continue circulating,” the statement said.
The government-led Polio Eradication Initiative urged parents and caregivers to ensure their children were vaccinated during the upcoming door-to-door campaign from September 21 to 27. “Consistent vaccination is essential to protect every family and seize the historic opportunity to eradicate polio for good,” it said.
The authority said the latest case underscored the need to maintain surveillance and vaccination efforts across the country. “No child is safe from polio until every child is protected,” it added.
The statement further read Pakistan had reduced polio cases by 99.8 per cent, from an estimated 20,000 cases in the early 1990s to 31 in 2025.
“So far in 2026, four cases have been reported, mostly concentrated in southern K-P,” it said, adding that while overall poliovirus transmission had declined since 2025, transmission remained persistent in southern K-P.
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The authority said three large-scale polio campaigns had already been conducted in Pakistan this year, protecting more than 45 million children multiple times, alongside smaller targeted oral and injectable vaccination campaigns in high-risk areas.
The next nationwide campaign is scheduled for September 21 to 27 and aims to vaccinate more than 31 million children across 115 districts in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Islamabad, K-P, Punjab and Sindh.
“Polio eradication is a collective responsibility,” it said, adding that frontline workers continued to take vaccines to children at their doorsteps while parents and caregivers played a crucial role in ensuring children received all recommended doses, including routine immunisations.
After a significant reduction in cases, from 147 in 2019 to just one in 2021, Pakistan has witnessed a resurgence. Since September 2023, there has been an increase in polio activity, particularly in Karachi.
While overall poliovirus transmission in the country has been declining, with cases falling from 74 in 2024 to 31 in 2025 and three so far in 2026, reflecting the impact of high-quality vaccination drives, virus circulation in southern K-P persists.
Polio is a highly contagious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis and, in some instances, death. However, the disease can be prevented through polio vaccines, which are safe and effective and have been used safely in 195 countries, including all Muslim countries.
