ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reported its ninth polio case of 2026, with genetic evidence linking the virus detected in a seven-month-old child in Khyber district to strains circulating in neighbouring Afghanistan, renewing concerns over cross-border transmission and the persistent threat of the crippling disease.
According to the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) for Polio Eradication, the infected child is from Union Council Mastak in Bara tehsil, Khyber district.
This is the third case reported from the district and the seventh from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) this year. Sindh has recorded the remaining two cases.
Officials said genetic analysis of all three poliovirus cases detected in Khyber district this year linked them to strains circulating in Afghanistan, highlighting the continuing risk of transmission between the neighbouring countries.
Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries in the world where transmission of wild poliovirus has never been interrupted. Frequent cross-border population movements, inaccessible communities, security challenges and gaps in childhood vaccination continue to hamper eradication efforts.
Health officials have stressed the need for stronger coordination between Islamabad and Kabul, particularly in border areas where population movement increases the risk of the virus spreading from one country to the other.
However, experts caution that cross-border transmission is not the only challenge. Persistent local circulation of poliovirus, children missed during vaccination drives, and inadequate immunity in vulnerable communities are also contributing to the continued presence of the disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has repeatedly treated Pakistan and Afghanistan as a single epidemiological block for polio eradication, warning that continued transmission in either country poses a threat to the other.
The WHO has also expressed concern over restrictions affecting house-to-house vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, particularly in southern provinces, where vaccination activities have largely been conducted at designated sites instead of through door-to-door visits.
Such arrangements risk leaving children, particularly infants and those living in remote communities, without adequate protection against the virus.
In Pakistan, environmental surveillance has also detected poliovirus in sewage samples from the Peshawar block, including Peshawar and Khyber districts, indicating that the virus continues to circulate despite repeated immunisation campaigns.
Official figures show that Pakistan reported 74 polio cases in 2024 and 31 in 2025. The number has fallen to nine so far in 2026, including seven in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Sindh.
Although the decline in reported cases is encouraging, officials have warned that the detection of poliovirus in children and environmental samples demonstrates that the country remains at risk.
Meanwhile, the government is conducting a seven-day nationwide polio vaccination campaign from November 2 to 8, targeting approximately 24 million children under five in 97 districts.
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Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal has urged parents to ensure that all eligible children receive oral polio vaccine during the campaign, irrespective of their previous vaccination history.
Health authorities have emphasised that repeated doses are essential to strengthen children’s immunity and interrupt virus transmission, particularly in high-risk districts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
They said Pakistan’s success in eliminating polio would depend on reaching every missed child, strengthening routine immunisation and maintaining effective coordination with Afghanistan.
Until wild poliovirus transmission is interrupted in both countries, children on either side of the border will remain vulnerable to a disease that can cause irreversible paralysis but is entirely preventable through vaccination.
