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ISLAMABAD: Health authorities have detected poliovirus in 42 out of a total of 127 sewage samples collected from 87 districts nationwide, the country’s polio program said on Tuesday, amid a resurgence of polio cases in the South Asian country.

Polio is an infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. Protection requires every child under five to get repeated oral polio vaccine doses during each campaign and complete all essential immunizations on time.

Sample testing at the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at Islamabad’s National Institute of Health confirmed 75 sewage samples as negative, while another 10 samples were being processed at the lab, according to the polio program.

One positive sample was reported from Balochistan, seven from KP, 12 from Punjab, 19 from Sindh and three from the capital city of Islamabad. Three samples in KP, four in Punjab along with one each in Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, were under process.

“While the overall trend shows a decline in positive detections, reflecting the impact of high-quality campaigns, the virus continues to circulate in certain areas,” the polio program said on Tuesday.

Pakistan has reported 19 polio cases so far this year. Of them, 12 came from the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province that has been identified as a high-risk zone for poliovirus transmission due to insecurity, vaccine hesitancy and operational challenges.

Over the past year, the polio program has conducted six high-quality vaccination campaigns, four of them nationwide, each reaching over 45 million children.

The next sub-national polio vaccination campaign is scheduled for September 1–7, 2025, aiming to vaccinate 28 million children across 91 districts in all provinces and regions.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic.

Islamabad made significant progress in curbing the virus, with annual cases dropping from around 20,000 in the early 1990s to just eight in 2018. Pakistan reported six cases in 2023 and only one in 2021 but the country saw an intense resurgence of the poliovirus in 2024, with 74 cases reported.

Efforts to eradicate the virus have been repeatedly undermined by vaccine misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners, who claim immunization is a foreign plot to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for

Western espionage. Militant groups have frequently targeted polio vaccination teams and the security personnel assigned to protect them, particularly in KP and Balochistan.

“Polio eradication is a collective responsibility,” the polio program said. “While frontline workers deliver life-saving vaccines, parents, caregivers, and communities must ensure every child receives every dose, support vaccination teams, counter misinformation, and encourage timely immunization.”