Pakistan has reported another case of polio, with a child from the Kohat district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa confirmed to have contracted the virus, according to sources at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The affected child, a two-and-a-half-year-old from Dara Adamkhel, has been diagnosed with Type-I poliovirus. This marks the second polio case in Kohat this year; earlier in the month, another child from the district was found to have the virus.

Additionally, four sewage samples collected from Kohat tested positive for poliovirus.

This incident brings the total number of polio cases reported in Pakistan for 2024 to 40. On October 19, two new cases were also reported from the Sanghar and Mirpurkhas districts in Sindh province.

In response to the ongoing situation, a nationwide polio vaccination campaign is set to begin on October 25, aiming to immunize over 4.5 million children across Pakistan.

The campaign will be executed in three phases, starting with Sindh province. The first phase is scheduled to commence on October 25 in Sindh, followed by the second phase on October 28 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The third phase will begin on November 11 in Punjab, Balochistan, and Islamabad.

The drive aims to vaccinate more than 4.5 million children, including 2.3 million in Punjab, 1.6 million in Sindh, 730,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 265,000 in Balochistan. Additionally, 461,125 children will be vaccinated in Islamabad, 740,000 in Azad Kashmir, and 281,232 in Gilgit-Baltistan.