ISLAMABAD: Two more children have been paralysed for life in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as the poliovirus eradication initiative struggles to freely vaccinate children in the troubled districts, health officials confirmed on Tuesday.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has verified two fresh cases of wild poliovirus, one from District Tank and the other from North Waziristan.
A 16-month-old girl from Union Council Mullazai in Tank and a 24-month-old girl from Union Council Miran Shah-3 in North Waziristan have been paralysed for life, raising Pakistan’s tally of polio cases in 2025 to 23.
According to official data, 15 of these cases have surfaced from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six from Sindh and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Southern KP remains the epicentre of the crisis, where lawlessness, mistrust and poor access have repeatedly obstructed vaccination drives, leaving thousands of children vulnerable to a virus that should have been eradicated decades ago.
The National and Provincial Emergency Operations Centres (EOCs) have drawn up a strategy for upcoming low-transmission season. The first nationwide campaign is scheduled for September 1-7, 2025, while in southern KP, door-to-door vaccination will begin on September 15 to reach children in high-risk union councils. More than 28 million children under five are targeted in the drive.
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