Bannu Polio Case Marks Pakistan’s Fourth Infection This Year
Health officials urge parents to vaccinate children ahead of the September campaign
Bannu – (Staff Reporter/Web Desk) – The Bannu polio case has become the fourth confirmed infection reported in Pakistan this year, health officials said on Friday. The child was found in the Nurar union council of Miryan tehsil.
The National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication shared the update. It said vaccination teams could not reach children in the area consistently since 2025 due to security concerns.
Officials are now urging every parent and caregiver to get their children vaccinated. A door-to-door campaign will run from September 21 to 27 across the country.
Three of the four cases reported this year come from southern parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Officials say limited access to some areas has let the virus keep spreading among unprotected children.
Despite this, Pakistan has made major progress against polio overall. Cases have dropped by nearly 99.8 percent since the early 1990s, when the country recorded close to 20,000 cases a year. Only 31 cases were reported in all of 2025.
Health officials say the fight is not over until every child is reached. They stressed that no child is truly safe from polio while gaps in vaccination remain in any part of the country.
The upcoming September campaign aims to reach almost 31 million children nationwide, including those living in the high-risk districts of southern KP. Two more cases this year were reported in North Waziristan and Bannu, while the first case came from Sindh’s Sujawal district.
Polio remains incurable but fully preventable. The vaccine has been used safely for decades in 195 countries, including every Muslim-majority nation, making it one of the most trusted tools in child healthcare today.
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