Pakistan on Tuesday reported a new polio case in Sindh’s Jacobabad district, taking the previous year’s tally to 71, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said in a statement.

Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic, with the disease mostly affecting children under five, and sometimes causing lifelong paralysis. Despite global efforts to eradicate the virus, challenges such as security issues, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation have slowed progress.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of the 71st wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case of 2024 in the country,” the statement said.

“On Tuesday, January 14, 2025, the lab confirmed one polio case from a male child from Jacobabad. The onset of this case was on December 27, 2024. Jacobabad has now reported 5 polio cases in 2024,” the NIH said.

Pakistan has been responding to an intense resurgence of WPV1 with 71 cases reported in 2024. Of these, 27 are from Balochistan, 21 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 21 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

The year’s first polio vaccination campaign is scheduled to be conducted nationwide from February 3 – 9, 2025. It is crucial for parents to ensure vaccination for all their children under the age of five to keep them protected, the statement added.

Polio is a paralysing disease that has no cure. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five are essential to provide children with high immunity against this terrible disease.

The Pakistan Polio Programme conducts multiple mass vaccination drives in a year, bringing the vaccine to children at their doorsteps, while the Expanded Program on Immunisation provides vaccinations against 12 childhood diseases free of charge at health facilities.

Last week, the 70th polio case of the previous year was detected in Karachi’s East district.

A sub-national Polio vaccination campaign was conducted across Punjab, Sindh, KP, AJK, GB, and Islamabad from December 16 to 22 vaccinating over 42 million children.