DI Khan reports first polio case of 2025
Last year, Pakistan reported 73 polio cases countrywide
(Web Desk) - Health authorities confirmed this year’s first polio case on Wednesday from Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan) district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) confirmed that this year’s first case was reported from Dera Ismail Khan.
Last year, Pakistan reported 73 polio cases countrywide.
“On Wednesday, the lab confirmed one polio case from DI Khan,” the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme said in a statement.
“DI Khan is one of the districts of South KP having 11 polio cases in 2024.”
Giving a breakdown of the 73 polio cases in 2024, the programme said 27 were reported from Balochistan, 22 from KP, 22 from southern Sindh, and one each from the eastern Punjab province and the capital city of Islamabad.
Pakistan, along with neighbouring Afghanistan, remains one of the last two polio-endemic countries in the world.
In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually, but by 2018, the number had dropped to just eight cases. Only six cases were reported in 2023, and one in 2021.
The Pakistan polio programme is scheduled to hold the country’s first nationwide vaccination drive of this year from Feb 3 to Feb. 9.
