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KARACHI: Pakistan has confirmed a new poliovirus case from the country’s northwestern Torghar district, the National Health Institute (NIH) confirmed on Tuesday, raising the total tally of cases this year to 30. 

The latest polio infection was detected in a 12-month-old boy from Union Council Ghari in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province’s Torghar district, the NIH said. The makes it the 19th polio case from KP this year while nine infections have been reported from Sindh and one each from the eastern Punjab and northern Gilgit-Baltistan territories.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has confirmed a new case of wild poliovirus (WPV1) in District Torghar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the statement said. 

“This is the second case from District Torghar this year.”

The development takes place a day after Pakistan launched the second phase of a nationwide polio immunization campaign until Oct. 23, aiming to vaccinate more than a million children in KP, where the highest number of cases have been reported this year. 

Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated doses of the Oral Polio Vaccine for every child under five during each campaign, alongside timely completion of all routine immunizations.

Pakistan is among the last two nations in the world, along with Afghanistan, where the disease remains endemic. The South Asian country has made remarkable progress since the 1990s, when annual polio cases exceeded 20,000, bringing them down to just eight by 2018. However, Pakistan recorded 74 cases in 2024, a sharp increase from six in 2023 and only one in 2021.

Pakistan’s efforts to eliminate poliovirus have been hampered by parental refusals, widespread misinformation and repeated attacks on anti-polio workers by militant groups. In remote and volatile areas, vaccination teams often operate under police protection, though security personnel themselves have also been targeted and killed in attacks.

KARACHI: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) official confirmed on Tuesday that the global lender was not considering increasing the amount of Pakistan’s $1.4 billion loan from its climate resilience fund, as Islamabad assesses economic damages from the recent devastating floods. 

Islamabad and the IMF reached a staff-level agreement on the second review under Pakistan’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the first review under the lender’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) last week. The RSF is part of a broader reform program that aims to help Pakistan adapt to increasingly frequent and devastating climate shocks.

Pakistan is the first country in the Middle East and Central Asia region to access the RSF program. The expected approval from the IMF’s Executive Board will pave the way for Pakistan to receive $200 million under the RSF, the IMF said last week. The South Asian country has said it is currently assessing damages caused by heavy rains and floods this monsoon season, which have killed over 1,000 people, 22,000 livestock and washed away over 2.2 million acres of crops since late June. 

When asked whether the IMF had any plans to increase its funding from Pakistan’s $1.4 billion RSF program, the lender’s country representative for Pakistan, Mahir Binici, told Arab News in a written response: 

“On May 9, 2025, the IMF Board approved Pakistan’s arrangement under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), supporting the authorities’ efforts to build economic resilience to climate vulnerabilities and natural disasters, with access of around $1.4 billion.

“A change in the access amount is not under consideration.”

About Islamabad’s implementation of the EFF program, Binici said Pakistani authorities have demonstrated commitment to implementing reforms under the EFF and made “significant effort” to meet program targets, continuing to entrench macroeconomic stability and rebuilding confidence. 

“The implementation of specific targets and commitments under the EFF-supported program is still under assessment,” the official said. 

Pakistan secured the $7 billion bailout from the IMF under the EFF program in September 2024 after months of negotiations to stabilize its struggling economy, rebuild reserves and attract foreign investment. The program came after record inflation and devastating floods pushed millions into poverty.

The IMF warned last week that the recent floods had darkened Pakistan’s outlook, particularly for agriculture, and could drag FY26 growth down to around 3.3–3.5 percent.