Pakistan reaches 40 Polio cases in 2024

Pakistan has reported another polio case, with a child from Kohat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa confirmed to have contracted the virus.

The affected child, aged two-and-a-half, is from Dara Adamkhel and has been diagnosed with Type-I poliovirus.

This marks the second polio case in Kohat this year, as another child in the district was diagnosed with the virus earlier this month. Additionally, four sewage samples collected from Kohat have tested positive for poliovirus.

This latest case is the 40th polio incident reported in Pakistan in 2024. On October 19, two new cases were confirmed in the Sindh districts of Sanghar and Mirpurkhas.

Meanwhile, a nationwide polio vaccination campaign is scheduled to begin on October 25, targeting over 4.5 million children across the country.

The campaign will be carried out in three phases, starting in Sindh on October 25. The second phase will launch in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on October 28, while the third phase will cover Punjab, Balochistan, and Islamabad, commencing on November 11.

The vaccination drive aims to immunize more than 4.5 million children, including 2.3 million in Punjab, 1.6 million in Sindh, 730,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 265,000 in Balochistan.

Additionally, 461,125 children in Islamabad, 740,000 in Azad Kashmir, and 281,232 in Gilgit-Baltistan will be vaccinated.