Pakistan has confirmed its ninth polio case of 2026, a seven-month-old boy from Khyber district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered a coordinated national plan to be drawn up within a week. The case, confirmed on Thursday by the Regional Reference Laboratory in Islamabad, underlines how the virus continues to circulate in the country’s border districts despite a sharp fall in cases over the past two years.
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FAKTA
- Pakistan’s ninth polio case of 2026 is a seven-month-old boy from Union Council Mastak in Bara tehsil, Khyber district.
- It is the third case from Khyber district and the seventh from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year; Sindh has reported two cases.
- Genetic analysis links the virus in all three Khyber cases to strains circulating in Afghanistan, which has reported 50 cases in 2026.
- Pakistan reported 74 polio cases in 2024 and 31 in 2025; nine have been confirmed so far in 2026.
- Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered a coordinated national strategy within seven days, after consultations with all four provinces.
- A nationwide vaccination campaign running from 2 to 8 November targets around 24 million children under five across 97 districts.
Pakistan’s Ninth Polio Case From the Border District
The National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication confirmed the latest infection in a seven-month-old boy from Union Council Mastak in Bara tehsil, Khyber district. It is the third case reported from Khyber district this year, and the seventh from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa overall. The remaining two cases in 2026 have been reported from Sindh, in Karachi East and Sujawal.
Within Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the seven cases this year are spread across three districts: three in Khyber, three in Bannu and one in North Waziristan. Health officials say the pattern points to persistent transmission in the province’s border belt, where vaccination teams face the greatest access and security challenges.
Virus Linked to Strains in Afghanistan
Genetic analysis of the poliovirus found in all three Khyber district cases this year shows links with strains circulating in Afghanistan, where 50 cases have been reported in 2026. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus transmission has not yet been stopped, and health authorities treat the two countries as a single epidemiological block.
Officials say the cross-border link makes coordinated vaccination on both sides of the border essential. The virus has also been detected in sewage samples from the Peshawar surveillance block, which covers Peshawar and Khyber districts, showing that it remains in circulation even where no child has fallen ill.
Prime Minister Orders a National Plan
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif issued his direction at a review meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday. He told federal health officials and the polio team to visit all four provinces, consult the chief ministers and chief secretaries, and prepare a coordinated strategy and plan within seven days.
The order came as a nationwide vaccination campaign was already under way. The drive, running from 2 to 8 November, targets around 24 million children under five across 97 high-risk districts. Health authorities registered the eighth case of the year, a 13-month-old girl also from Khyber district, on 1 November, just before the campaign began.
Cases Are Falling, but the Virus Persists
The nine cases recorded so far in 2026 represent a steep decline from 74 cases in 2024 and 31 in 2025. Officials credit the improvement to repeated vaccination rounds and better surveillance, but they caution that detections in children and in sewage show the virus has not been eliminated.
| Year | Polio cases in Pakistan |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 74 |
| 2025 | 31 |
| 2026 (so far) | 9 |
Polio vaccination teams in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa also work under serious security pressure. Earlier this week, gunmen shot dead two police officers protecting polio vaccination teams in the province, a day after four officers protecting polio workers were abducted. The attacks underline the risks faced by the frontline workers on whom eradication depends.
Conclusion
The ninth case of 2026 is a reminder that Pakistan’s fight against polio is not yet won, even as case numbers fall sharply. With the virus still crossing the border from Afghanistan and circulating in sewage in the Peshawar block, the national plan ordered by the prime minister and the current vaccination drive will be judged on whether they can reach every child in the highest-risk districts.
