Pakistan Confirms Third Polio Case in 2025

Synopsis

Pakistan has reported a third case of polio in 2025, confirming a new case in Sindh province. This brings the total to three affected children this year. The Health Ministry is conducting extensive vaccination campaigns to combat the rising number of cases.

Key Takeaways

Third polio case reported in 2025.
New case found in Sindh province.
Health Ministry confirmed 74 cases in 2024.
Nationwide vaccination campaign successfully completed.
Additional vaccination activities targeting border areas.

Islamabad, Feb 23 (NationPress) Pakistan has identified a new case of polio in the southern province of Sindh, raising the total number of children affected by the disease to three since the start of this year, according to officials from the Health Ministry.

The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), which operates under the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations, and Coordination, confirmed the presence of type 1 wild poliovirus in a child from the Larkana district, as reported by Xinhua.

This marks the second reported case of polio from Sindh this year, contributing to a total of two cases in Sindh and one in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the northwest of the country.

Pakistan is currently experiencing an increase in poliovirus cases, with a total of 74 cases reported in 2024. This includes 27 from Balochistan, 22 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 23 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

Earlier this month, Pakistan conducted its first nationwide polio vaccination campaign for 2025. Following this, a fractional IPV-OPV Polio campaign was executed in Quetta and Karachi on February 20 and 22, respectively, according to a report by Dawn.

The Health Ministry stated that the first nationwide polio campaign of 2025 concluded successfully, achieving 99 percent of its targets across the nation. More than 45 million children received the polio vaccine from February 3 to 9 during this campaign.

Currently, a second large-scale catch-up initiative is in progress across the country, targeting children up to five years old under the expanded immunization program.

Additionally, a vaccination effort aimed at over 100 union councils along the Afghanistan border is set from February 24 to 28, with a target of vaccinating 0.66 million children.

Government officials reported that a total of 74 polio cases were documented in the country in 2024.

The World Health Organisation classifies polio as a highly contagious disease caused by a virus. The virus is primarily spread through person-to-person contact, mainly via the faecal-oral route, or, less frequently, through contaminated water or food, multiplying in the intestine.

Initial symptoms of the polio virus include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, neck stiffness, and limb pain. One in every 200 infections results in irreversible paralysis, typically in the legs, and among those paralyzed, 5-10 percent may die when their respiratory muscles become immobilized.