Pakistan recorded its twelfth poliovirus case this year, PTI reported citing Pakistani media. The new case was reported despite three anti-polio campaigns conducted in Pakistan in 2025.
The latest victim is a 33-month-old male child from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, The Dawn reported, quoting the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health. This is the sixth such case that was reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa alone.
The child had consumed two doses of the polio vaccine but the injectable vaccine was not administered. According to a report by the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, the virus was found in environmental samples collected from seven different districts in the country. The virus was found in environmental samples from Quetta, Gwadar, South Waziristan (lower), South Waziristan (upper), Larkana, Rawalpindi, and Mirpurkhas.
Pakistan had reported 74 polio cases last year and conducted three nationwide campaigns in the country so far in 2025, in February, April, and May.
Despite the campaigns, Pakistan remains one of only two countries where the disease remains endemic. The other country where the disease still persists is Afghanistan.
Pakistan has faced constant barriers due to religious extremism that have prevented it from eradicating polio from its society. One of the alarming factors impeding anti-polio vaccination is the hesitation of a large proportion of the general population to vaccinate their children.
According to an article published in CBC in 2022, Shahzad Baig, who led Pakistan's Polio Eradication Programme, said he and his colleagues are also dealing with death threats from religious extremists and people with anti-vaccine sentiments.
The polio immunization numbers are low in certain areas as "there was an element of fear; threats from the religious leaders not to vaccinate, threats from the violence," he said. Potential attacks from the Taliban or other religious extremists also put pressure on the community to not take the vaccine, Baig told CBS.
