{"id":3961,"date":"2026-11-05T19:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T19:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/?p=3961"},"modified":"2026-11-05T19:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T19:21:22","slug":"pakistan-reports-ninth-polio-case-as-virus-remains-linked-to-afghan-strains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/2026\/11\/05\/pakistan-reports-ninth-polio-case-as-virus-remains-linked-to-afghan-strains\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan reports ninth Polio case as virus remains linked to Afghan strains"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ISLAMABAD:<\/strong> Pakistan has reported its ninth polio case of 2026 after a seven-month-old child in Khyber district tested positive for the virus, with genetic analysis linking the detected strain to poliovirus circulating in neighbouring Afghanistan, health officials said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>According to the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) for Polio Eradication, the child belongs to Union Council Mastak in Bara tehsil of Khyber district. It is the district\u2019s third case and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa\u2019s seventh this year. Sindh has reported the remaining two cases.<\/p>\n<p>Officials said genetic analysis of poliovirus detected in all three cases from Khyber district this year showed links with strains circulating in Afghanistan, underscoring the persistent risk of cross-border transmission.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries where wild poliovirus transmission has never been interrupted. Frequent cross-border movement, inaccessible communities, security challenges and gaps in childhood vaccination continue to hamper eradication efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Health officials said the genetic links highlighted the need for closer coordination between the two countries, particularly in border districts where population movements increase the risk of transmission.<\/p>\n<p>However, experts cautioned that cross-border transmission was not the only challenge. Continued local circulation of the virus, children missed during vaccination campaigns and inadequate immunity in vulnerable communities also contribute to the persistence of polio in Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>The World Health Organisation (WHO) has repeatedly treated Pakistan and Afghanistan as a single epidemiological block for polio eradication, warning that continued transmission in either country poses a risk to the other.<\/p>\n<p>The WHO has also expressed concern over restrictions affecting house-to-house vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, particularly in southern provinces, where vaccination has largely been conducted at designated sites rather than through household visits.<\/p>\n<p>Such arrangements can leave children without protection, especially infants and those living in remote communities, increasing the risk of continued transmission.<\/p>\n<p>In Pakistan, environmental surveillance has detected poliovirus in sewage samples from the Peshawar block, including Peshawar and Khyber districts, indicating that the virus continues to circulate despite repeated vaccination drives.<\/p>\n<p>Official figures show that Pakistan recorded 74 polio cases in 2024 and 31 in 2025. The number has fallen to nine so far in 2026, including seven in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Sindh.<\/p>\n<p>Officials described the decline as encouraging but warned that the detection of poliovirus in children and environmental samples showed that the threat remained.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the government is conducting a seven-day nationwide polio vaccination campaign from November 2 to 8, targeting around 24 million children under five in 97 districts.<\/p>\n<p>Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal has urged parents to ensure that all eligible children receive oral polio vaccine during the campaign, irrespective of their previous vaccination history.<\/p>\n<p>Health authorities said repeated doses were essential to strengthen children&#8217;s immunity and interrupt transmission, particularly in high-risk districts along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.<\/p>\n<p>They stressed that progress towards eradication would depend on reaching every missed child, improving routine immunisation and maintaining effective coordination with Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>Officials warned that until transmission is interrupted in both countries, children on either side of the border will remain at risk from a disease that can cause irreversible paralysis but is preventable through vaccination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reported its ninth polio case of 2026 after a seven-month-old child in Khyber district tested positive for the virus, with genetic analysis linking the detected strain to poliovirus circulating in neighbouring Afghanistan, health officials said on Thursday. According to the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) for Polio Eradication, the child belongs to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-national"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pakistan reports ninth Polio case as virus remains linked to Afghan strains - Diplomag<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/diplomag.com.pk\/index.php\/2026\/11\/05\/pakistan-reports-ninth-polio-case-as-virus-remains-linked-to-afghan-strains\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pakistan reports ninth Polio case as virus remains linked to Afghan strains - Diplomag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reported its ninth polio case of 2026 after a seven-month-old child in Khyber district tested positive for the virus, with genetic analysis linking the detected strain to poliovirus circulating in neighbouring Afghanistan, health officials said on Thursday. 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