ISLAMABAD, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan reported a new case of polio in the country's southern Sindh province, bringing the total number of the disease-infected children to three since the beginning of this year, officials from the health ministry said on Sunday.
The officials from the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) under the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination confirmed the detection of type 1 wild poliovirus in a child from Larkana district of the province.
This is the second polio case reported from Sindh this year, bringing the total number of cases to two in Sindh and one in the country's northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Earlier this month, the first nationwide polio campaign of 2025 concluded, with 99 percent of the targets achieved across the country, said the health ministry, adding that during this campaign, more than 45 million children were administered the polio vaccine from Feb. 3 to Feb. 9.
The ministry said that a second round of the big catch-up activity is currently underway in the country to vaccinate children up to 5 years old under the expanded program on immunization.
Moreover, a vaccination activity targeting over 100 union councils bordering Afghanistan is scheduled from Feb. 24 to Feb. 28, it said, adding that a total of 0.66 million children will be targeted for vaccination during this activity.
According to government officials, a total of 74 polio cases were reported in the country in 2024. ■
