Second polio case in 2025 reported from Badin

Badin: The National Institute of Health (NIH) reported the second case of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in Pakistan in 2025 and the sample taken from the Badin district of Sindh tested positive in its laboratory in Islamabad.

According to a media report, the first case of 2025 was reported from Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A total of 74 polio cases were reported in the country last year. Of these, 27 were from Balochistan, 23 from Sindh, 22 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

Polio is a paralytic disease with no cure. Multiple doses of the oral vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five are essential to provide high immunity to children.

“The Pakistan Polio Program conducts mass vaccination campaigns more than once a year, delivering vaccines to children at their doorsteps, while the Expanded Program on Immunization provides free vaccines against 12 childhood diseases at health centers,” said an official from the NIH’s Regional Reference Laboratory.

“It is important for parents to ensure that all their children under the age of five are vaccinated,” he said.

Poliovirus attacks the nervous system and can cause paralysis or death. Although there is no cure, vaccination is the most effective way to protect children from this crippling disease.

Repeated polio campaigns have saved millions of children from the disease, while almost all countries in the world, except Pakistan and Afghanistan, have been free of the disease.