New polio case in Hyderabad raises Pakistan’s 2025 tally to 27

A new polio case has been confirmed in Sindh’s Hyderabad district, raising the nationwide count to 27 this year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Monday.

According to the NIH, Pakistan’s polio cases in 2025 include 18 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, seven from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan. The latest detection brings Sindh’s provincial total to seven.

Pakistan, along with Afghanistan, remains among the last two countries where polio is still endemic. Despite extensive global eradication efforts, health officials continue to face hurdles such as vaccine hesitancy, security challenges, and misinformation.

The NIH said a Sub-National Polio Vaccination Campaign was carried out earlier this month across 88 districts, including Hyderabad, and immunised about 21 million children under the age of five. The next nationwide campaign is scheduled from October 13 to 19, targeting 45.5 million children, with more than 400,000 polio workers set to go door-to-door.

The latest case comes shortly after two infections were confirmed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa earlier this month: a 19-month-old child in North Waziristan’s Mir Ali tehsil and an 11-month-old in Lakki Marwat’s Suleman Khel tehsil.