Two additional cases of poliovirus have been confirmed in the Dera Ismail Khan and Lakki Marwat districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This brings the total number of reported cases of the debilitating disease in the country to 45 this year.

The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication in Islamabad has verified the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases. The affected individuals are a 34-month-old girl in Lakki Marwat and a two-year-old boy in D.I. Khan. Genetic sequencing of the samples from these children is currently underway, according to a laboratory official.

These cases emerge during a nationwide vaccination drive aimed at immunizing over 45 million children under five years of age. Both districts had previously reported a single case of poliovirus each, and environmental samples from these areas have also tested positive for the virus.

To date, Balochistan has reported 22 polio cases, Sindh has 12, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has nine, and Punjab and Islamabad each have one case.

In response to the increasing number of cases, both the federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments have agreed to implement a joint strategy to eradicate the virus.

Beyond the confirmed cases, WPV1 has been detected in 76 districts across all four provinces and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, indicating widespread circulation of the virus and an ongoing significant risk to children’s health, according to officials.

On Friday, testing of environmental samples revealed that the poliovirus has now reached Noshki in Balochistan and Mianwali in Punjab, areas that had previously remained unaffected.

Experts note that testing sewage water samples is a key indicator of the success of polio vaccination campaigns. The presence of the virus in sewage suggests that local children’s immunity levels have declined, putting them at risk for the disease.