Pakistan reports three new polio cases, raising 2024 tally to 59

A delivery boy rides past the building of National Institute of Health (NIH), a Pakistani research institute mainly responsible for biomedical and health related research, in Islamabad on August 16, 2024. (AFP/File)

• New cases detached in DI Khan, Karachi Keamari and Kashmore
• Pakistan and Afghanistan are last polio-endemic countries globally

PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s polio eradication program said on Tuesday three new cases of the crippling virus had been detected in the country, bringing the nationwide tally for 2024 to 59.
Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. The nation’s polio eradication campaign has hit serious problems with a spike in reported cases this year that have prompted officials to review their approach to stopping the crippling disease.
The next national polio vaccination campaign is planned for mid-December to reach more than 44 million children. Pakistan’s chief health officer said last month an estimated 500,000 children had missed polio vaccinations during a recent countrywide inoculation drive due to vaccine refusals.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of three wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan, bringing the number of total cases in the country this year to 59,” the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication said in a statement. 
The new cases have been confirmed in DI Khan, Karachi Keamari and Kashmore.
“DI Khan, one of the seven polio endemic districts of southern KP, has now reported eight polio cases, Karachi Keamari has three cases, while Kashmore has the first polio case this year,” the statement added. 
Of the 59 cases reported in 2024, 26 are from Balochistan province, 16 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad, the federal capital.
Poliovirus, which can cause crippling paralysis particularly in young children, is incurable and remains a threat to human health as long as it has not been eradicated. Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain.
In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021. 
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners, who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams. 
In July 2019, a vaccination drive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was thwarted after mass panic was created by rumors that children were fainting or vomiting after being immunized.
Public health studies in Pakistan have shown that maternal illiteracy and low parental knowledge about vaccines, together with poverty and rural residency, are also factors that commonly influence whether parents vaccinate their children against polio.