Pakistan Reports 73rd Polio Case of 2024

The National Emergency Operations Centre confirmed Pakistan's 73rd wild poliovirus case of 2024, one short of the year's final total.

Closing the worst year since 2019

2024 ended with 74 cases: Balochistan 27, Sindh 23, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 22, Punjab 1, Islamabad 1. Against six cases in 2023, it represented a complete reversal of the previous year's position.

What the programme took into 2025

Three problems were identified as carrying forward.

• Access in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Security-related constraints around Bannu and North Waziristan had prevented campaigns from running in some union councils across consecutive rounds. Children in those areas had missed multiple opportunities, and the programme's own analysis identified this as the single largest remaining driver.
• Urban transmission in Sindh. Karachi and Hyderabad continued to return positive environmental samples consistently, with "not available" rather than refusal the dominant reason children were missed.
• Balochistan's spread. Cases had appeared well beyond the Quetta block, in districts with thin health infrastructure and sparse surveillance coverage.

What changed in 2025

The programme intensified campaign rounds, expanded transit point vaccination, pushed integrated health camps into resistant communities, and escalated access negotiation at political level. 2025 closed at 31 cases — well down on 74, though still far above the single case recorded in 2021.

By September 2026, Pakistan had reported four cases for the year, three of them from the Bannu division in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — confirming that the access problem identified at the end of 2024 remained the decisive constraint.

Why case counts alone are not the measure

A falling case count is good news but not proof of interruption. Certification requires three consecutive years with no wild poliovirus detected in people or in the environment. Until environmental surveillance goes quiet as well, the virus is still there.

For parents

Two drops in every round, every child under five, every time. Complete the routine immunisation schedule. Call 1166 if no team reaches your household.

Related: district-wise cases · eradication strategy · surveillance