Islamabad woke up to alarming news on Thursday as Pakistan confirmed its first wild poliovirus case of 2026. A four-year-old child from Bello Union Council in Sujawal district, Sindh province, tested positive, marking a setback in the country’s battle against the crippling disease.
The confirmation came from the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad and the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication, as reported by the Pakistan National Emergency Operations Center for Polio Eradication (NEOC). Local media outlets highlighted this as the inaugural case of the year, underscoring persistent challenges in vaccination efforts.
Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two nations where wild poliovirus is endemic. The country has long grappled with violence against polio workers, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which hampers immunization drives.
Recent campaigns paint a mixed picture. While over 44.3 million children received polio drops, achieving 98% household coverage, nearly 0.95 million were missed. Of these, 0.67 million were absent from home during visits. An additional 2.5 million guest children were vaccinated, potentially covering some of those initially missed.
Security issues, community refusals, and harsh weather in snowy regions left 233,000 children unreachable. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounted for 184,000 of these, with around 50,000 in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB) due to inaccessibility.
In Balochistan’s Mastung, Gwadar, Chagai, and Awaran, campaigns were suspended over security threats. Refusals affected 0.14% of targeted children, with 31,000 in Karachi alone, representing 58% of nationwide refusals. During the first 2026 drive, about one million children missed out, and 53,000 outright refused.
Provincial breakdowns show Punjab vaccinating over 22.9 million, Sindh over 10.5 million, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa more than 7.13 million, and Balochistan above 2.3 million. Islamabad reached over 455,000, PoGB around 261,000, and PoJK more than 673,000 children.
Officials stress that despite high coverage, the sheer number of missed children poses a grave risk. This new case serves as a stark reminder that Pakistan must intensify efforts to close immunity gaps and protect future generations from polio’s devastating effects.