Islamabad, May 1: Pakistan has reported two new cases of polio in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. This brings the total number of cases in the country to three since the beginning of the year, according to local media reports on Friday.
An official from Pakistan’s polio eradication program, speaking on condition of anonymity, informed the prominent daily ‘Dawn’ that one case each was identified in Bannu and North Waziristan. The National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) has confirmed these cases.
The official stated, “Both cases were detected through the polio virus surveillance network and confirmed by the WHO-accredited laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH).”
Earlier this year, the first case was reported in the Sujawal district of Sindh province, raising the total to three.
Currently, Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in the world where polio cases are still reported.
According to ‘Dawn’, there were reports last month of attacks on polio teams in areas including Hangu and Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well as parts of Balochistan. These attacks resulted in the deaths of police escorts and the abduction of some polio workers.
These incidents occurred during a nationwide vaccination campaign aimed at administering polio drops to children.
In March, it was reported that approximately 233,000 children missed out on polio vaccinations due to security issues, local opposition in certain areas, and snow-covered regions. Among these, around 184,000 children were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while nearly 50,000 children in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan also went unvaccinated.
Parental refusal of the vaccine remains a significant challenge. In Karachi alone, about 31,000 cases were reported where individuals declined the vaccine, accounting for nearly 58 percent of the total refusals nationwide.
This raises questions about how much misinformation, poor planning, inadequate local administration, and lack of political attention contribute to the issue.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has imposed travel restrictions related to polio on Pakistan since 2014. Under these regulations, individuals traveling internationally must possess a certificate of polio vaccination.
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