Sindh reports two new polio cases, Pundits predict more

Ayesha urged all stakeholders, including parents, caretakers, teachers, community leaders, and neighbors, to recognize the urgency of the situation and take immediate steps to vaccinate every child in their care

By Asghar Ali Mubarak

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reported two additional cases of polio, bringing the total number of cases this year to 26. In light of this alarming development, the Polio Program is urgently appealing to parents to ensure that their children receive repeated polio vaccinations to protect them from the debilitating effects of the poliovirus.

The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed that two children from Karachi East and Sujawal districts in Sindh have been affected by the crippling disease. These cases mark the first instances reported this year from these areas, where recent environmental samples have indicated the presence of the poliovirus, suggesting its circulation in local communities and posing a serious risk to the health of children.

“It is heartbreaking that Pakistani children are still being threatened by a disease that can be easily prevented with the help of an easily available polio vaccine,” stated Ayesha Raza Farooq, the Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication. She emphasized the importance of vaccination, noting that there is no cure for polio and that once a child is paralyzed, the effects are permanent and irreversible.

Ayesha urged all stakeholders, including parents, caretakers, teachers, community leaders, and neighbors, to recognize the urgency of the situation and take immediate steps to vaccinate every child in their care. “One child affected by polio means that hundreds of children around them can be silent carriers of the virus. No child anywhere is safe until all children in Pakistan are repeatedly vaccinated for polio, building a wall of protection against this disease,” she added.

The Pakistan Polio Program is currently implementing a strategic roadmap aimed at controlling the spread of the virus and interrupting its transmission by mid-2025. This comprehensive strategy, developed in consultation with provincial authorities, focuses on reaching every child, particularly in high-risk areas, enhancing the quality of vaccination campaigns, building community trust, ensuring vaccination for mobile and migrant populations, and strengthening management and oversight for improved outcomes.

As part of this effort, the Program successfully concluded a mass vaccination campaign last month, reaching 33 million children under five across 115 districts. A second mass vaccination campaign is planned to begin on October 28. Muhammad Anwarul Haq, Coordinator of the National Emergency Center for Polio Eradication, highlighted the collaborative efforts being made with provincial teams to develop effective campaign strategies to ensure every child in the province receives the vaccine. “Together we must unite against polio as a nation, bringing forward all our children for vaccination during every campaign and through routine immunization to collectively defeat this terrible disease,” he stated. This year’s polio cases in Pakistan include 15 from Balochistan, seven from Sindh, two from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad, underscoring the ongoing challenges in eradicating this preventable disease.