Pakistan's poliovirus tally rises to 70 as another case confirmed

Pakistan reported another poliovirus case on Thursday as country's tally for 2024 rose to 70. 

The Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) reported that the case has just come to light but was first reported in 2024. 

The child who has contracted the disabling disease is from Karachi East, the National Health Organisation's Polio Reference Laboratory confirmed, taking the district's number of cases to two in 2024. 

EOC reported that the child had started showing symptoms of the disease on December 21, 2024.

In 2024, a spike and intensification was observed in the poliovirus cases in Pakistan, said EOC.

Balochistan was the hardest hit from the disabling disease as the province reported 27 cases. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 21 and 20 of the 70 cases were from Sindh.

Punjab and Islamabad reported one case each in 2024.

Pakistan is one of the two polio-endemic countries in the world, along with Afghanistan, and the number of cases on a yearly basis had significantly dropped in the country, until the recent spike in cases.

Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme explains that polio is a "paralysing" disease with "no cure" and "the completion of the routine vaccination for all children under the age of five" just provides them "high immunity against this terrible disease".

The government has launched multiple vaccination drives as part of its efforts to wipe the disease out of the country with the last one being in December 2024 aiming to innoculate 44,000,000 children across the country.

A provincial week-long anti-polio campaign was also launched in Balochistan on December 30 with the goal to vaccinate more than 2.6 million children up to five years of age.