ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s environmental surveillance for poliovirus showed continued progress in July 2025, with a notable decline in positive detections across several provinces. According to the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, 127 sewage samples were collected from 87 districts nationwide. Testing confirmed 75 samples negative and 42 positive, while 10 are still under process.
Provincial breakdown:
- Balochistan: 22 negative, 1 positive
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 24 negative, 7 positive, 3 under process
- Punjab: 15 negative, 12 positive, 4 under process
- Sindh: 10 negative, 19 positive
- Islamabad: 1 negative, 3 positive, 1 under process
- AJK: 2 negative, 1 under process
- Gilgit-Baltistan: 1 negative, 1 under process
The July results show encouraging reductions compared to earlier months. Balochistan reported a sharp drop, with only one positive site in July versus 15 in January. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, positive sites fell from 14 in January to 7 in July. Punjab recorded 12 positive sites in July, down from 15 in March. Sindh’s positive detections dropped from 20 districts in March to 12 in July. All tested samples from AJK and GB to date remain negative.
The Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme attributes the improvement to six high-quality vaccination campaigns over the past year, four of them nationwide, each reaching over 45 million children.
The next sub-national polio campaign will run from September 1–7, 2025, targeting 28 million children across 91 districts. Authorities urge parents and caregivers to ensure their children receive polio drops and complete routine immunization, which is free for children up to 15 months of age.
Health officials stressed that eradication requires collective responsibility, community support for vaccination teams, and consistent protection against misinformation to safeguard every child from lifelong paralysis.
