Accessibility links

Breaking News

Pakistan Reports New Polio Cases, Raising Number To 45 So Far This Year


A health worker administers polio drops to a child during a door-to-door vaccination campaign in Lahore, Pakistan, on October 28.
A health worker administers polio drops to a child during a door-to-door vaccination campaign in Lahore, Pakistan, on October 28.

Pakistan reported two cases of wild poliovirus infection on November 1 in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, raising the national count for the year to 45, according to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Program.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan,” the statement said.

It said cases were confirmed in one girl in the Lakki Marwat district and a boy in the Dara Ismail Khan district.

So far, 22 polio cases have been reported from Balochistan Province, 12 from Sindh Province, nine from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab Province and Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.

Seventy-six districts were affected in all, the program said.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic.

On October 28, Pakistan launched a weeklong nationwide vaccination campaign with the aim of immunizing more than 45 million children under the age of 5 against the paralytic disease.

Health workers distributing the polio vaccine and the security forces assigned to protect them have been targeted in the past by Islamist extremists who falsely assert that immunization campaigns are Western plots to sterilize Muslim children.

RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.

If you are in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine and hold a Russian passport or are a stateless person residing permanently in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine, please note that you could face fines or imprisonment for sharing, liking, commenting on, or saving our content, or for contacting us.

To find out more, click here.

XS
SM
MD
LG