ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reported its first polio case of 2025, with a 13-month-old girl from the Tank district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province confirmed to have contracted the virus, a media report said on Wednesday.
Citing sources at the National Reference Lab, the Express Tribune newspaper reported that the girl, who first exhibited symptoms of polio on November 25, has been diagnosed with Wild poliovirus type 1.
In 2024, Pakistan recorded 68 polio cases, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounting for 21 of them.
Balochistan reported 27 cases, Sindh 19, while Punjab and Islamabad each reported one case.
The virus has persisted despite Pakistan conducting multiple mass vaccination drives in 2024 to provide free vaccines to children under five years at their doorsteps.
A sub-national polio vaccination campaign was conducted across Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad from December 16 to 22 vaccinating over 42 million children.
Polio is a paralysing disease that has no cure and an anti-polio vaccine is the only way to prevent its infection.
However, parents refuse to give vaccines to their kids due to widespread misconception that the vaccine is a global conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children.
Polio eradication has been a persistent challenge in Pakistan.
In December, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provincial government decided not to issue birth, death, or marriage certificates to families who refused polio vaccination.
The move was part of an intensified effort to bolster the province's polio eradication campaign.
Under the new directive, individuals must ensure their children receive the polio vaccine to access these essential documents.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic, according to the World Health Organisation.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence.
Many workers have been killed and injured by attackers who believe that anti-polio vaccine campaigns are un-Islamic.