Pakistan reports 40th polio case of 2024

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported another polio case as a child from Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been confirmed to be affected with the virus, ARY News reported citing National Institutes of Health (NIH) sources.

A two-and-a-half-year-old child belonged to Dara Adamkhel has been affected with Type-I of the poliovirus, the NIH sources said.

This is Kohat’s second instance of polio this year; earlier this month, another district child was found to have contracted the virus.

Four sewage samples taken from Kohat have been found to contain poliovirus.

It may be noted here that this is the 40th case of polio reported from Pakistan in 2024 as earlier on October 19 two new polio cases were reported from Sanghar and Mirpurkhas districts of Sindh province.

Meanwhile, a nationwide polio vaccination drive is set to commence on October 25, aiming to immunise over 4.5 million children across Pakistan.

According to sources, the campaign will be conducted in three phases, starting from Sindh province.

The first phase will begin on October 25 in Sindh, followed by the second phase on October 28 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The third phase will commence on November 11 in Punjab, Balochistan, and Islamabad.

The drive aims to vaccinate over 4.5 million children, including 2.3 million in Punjab, 1.6 million in Sindh, 730,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 265,000 in Balochistan.

Additionally, 461,125 children will be vaccinated in Islamabad, 740,000 in Azad Kashmir, and 281,232 in Gilgit-Baltistan