Pakistan reports 14th poliovirus case as 19-month-old boy tests positive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

One more case of poliovirus has been confirmed in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, taking the total countrywide tally to 14, officials said.

The new case, a 19-month-old boy, was reported in the North Waziristan district of the province, the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad said on Tuesday (July 1, 2025).

With the latest case, the total number of polio cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has risen to 8. Four cases were confirmed in Sindh and one each in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan earlier this year.

Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic. Despite global efforts to eradicate the virus, challenges such as security issues, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation have slowed progress.

This year, Pakistan has undertaken three nationwide polio campaigns so far — in February, April, and May. Polio eradication efforts in Pakistan routinely face security issues.

The case is the second one to be confirmed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa within a week after an 18-month-old child from the Union Council Amakhel in Tank district was confirmed as the seventh case on June 27.

In May, Pakistan launched its third drive of the year against the crippling disease, aiming to vaccinate 45 million children under the age of five. The government has vowed to eradicate polio by the end of this year.

Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated doses of the oral polio vaccine for every child under five.