ISLAMABAD: An eight-month-old girl from Hyderabad’s Preetabad area has died after being suspected of polio, with laboratory tests confirming the virus from her close contacts, health officials said on Monday. The case has raised the total number of polio cases so far this year to 27.
According to the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, the infant had shown symptoms consistent with polio but passed away before her samples could be collected.
Officials at the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), Sindh, disclosed that the child was severely malnourished, suffered from congenital heart disease, and had been experiencing diarrhoea for the past month, conditions that left her extremely vulnerable.
“The virus was confirmed from her contacts, and the case belongs to Preetabad in Hyderabad, where circulation of poliovirus has already been detected,” an EOC official said.
With this confirmation, Sindh’s cases this year have reached seven, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remains the hardest-hit province with 18 cases. Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan have reported one case each.
Health authorities said the child’s death underscores the continuing risks posed by poliovirus transmission in high-risk areas, despite decades of vaccination campaigns. They warned that malnutrition, weak immunity, and missed vaccinations keep children susceptible to paralysis or even death.
Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus is still endemic. Experts believe that low routine immunisation rates, vaccine hesitancy, and population mobility continue to fuel outbreaks.
The latest case has prompted officials to intensify vaccination efforts across Sindh. Health workers will go door-to-door in Hyderabad and surrounding districts in the coming weeks to ensure no child is left unvaccinated.
Despite the setbacks, government officials and global health partners insist eradication remains possible. But they admit that incidents like the Hyderabad case highlight how fragile progress is and how urgent it is to protect every child against the virus.