ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s fight against polio has suffered another setback, as a new case of the crippling virus has been confirmed in a 12-month-old girl in the Torghar district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
The case was officially confirmed by the Regional Reference Laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad. The affected child, who belongs to Union Council Ghari, is the second child to contract the virus from Torghar district this year.
This latest diagnosis brings the total number of children paralyzed by polio in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province alone to 19 for 2025, highlighting the severe transmission risk. Other high-risk districts in the province include Lakki Marwat, Tank, and North Waziristan, each reporting four cases.
Nationwide, the total polio case count for the year has now risen to 30. This includes 19 cases from KP, nine from Sindh, and one case each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.
