16th Polio Case of 2024 Reported from Hyderabad, Sindh

Pakistan's National Emergency Operations Centre confirmed the 16th wild poliovirus case of 2024, in a child from Hyderabad in Sindh.

Urban transmission in Sindh

Sindh ended 2024 with 23 confirmed cases, second only to Balochistan. The province's polio problem is fundamentally urban: Karachi has been one of the world's most persistent poliovirus reservoirs for decades, and Hyderabad, as Sindh's second city, sits on the same corridor of movement.

Dense, low-income urban settlements are efficient environments for poliovirus. The virus spreads through the faecal-oral route, so inadequate sanitation and shared water sources accelerate transmission. High population density means an infected child contacts many others. And large mobile populations — families moving between the city and rural districts, and between Sindh and other provinces for work — continually import and export virus.

Why cities are hard to campaign in

Urban campaigns fail differently from rural ones. In a village, a team knows who lives where. In a dense city neighbourhood with high tenancy turnover, multi-storey buildings, absent working parents and children who are simply not at home during the day, the "not available" category becomes the dominant reason children are missed — not refusal, not access, just repeated absence.

Karachi's environmental surveillance sites have returned poliovirus-positive samples consistently over many years, often when no case has been reported, which is the clearest available evidence of continuous silent urban transmission. See how surveillance works.

Response

Confirmation triggers emergency house-to-house vaccination in the affected area, investigation of the child's immunisation history, an active search for further paralysis cases, and expanded sewage sampling. In urban settings the response also targets transit points and the informal settlements that formal microplans most often under-count.

For families in Hyderabad and Karachi

Make sure children under five are actually present when teams call, or take them to a fixed vaccination point if they were missed. A child recorded as "not available" is an unvaccinated child. Complete the routine EPI schedule alongside campaign drops, and call 1166 if no team reaches your street.

Related: district-wise cases · high-risk areas · polio FAQs