Pakistan reports eighth polio case of 2026 as 13-month-old girl in Khyber tests positive, days before nationwide vaccination drive
Pakistan has confirmed its eighth polio case of 2026, a 13-month-old girl from Bara tehsil in Khyber district, the National Emergency Operations Centre said on Sunday, as health officials prepare a November 2-8 campaign aiming to vaccinate nearly 24 million children.
Pakistan has reported its eighth polio case of 2026, the National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication (NEOC) confirmed on Sunday, after poliovirus was found in a 13-month-old girl from Khyber district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The announcement, carried by Dawn, Geo News and Arab News, comes just one day before a major vaccination campaign that aims to protect nearly 24 million children across the country.
The affected child belongs to Union Council Janbaz-B in Tehsil Bara, according to the NEOC and the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme. It is the second case reported from Khyber district this year and the sixth from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province that now accounts for three-quarters of the national tally. The remaining two cases of 2026 have been reported from Sindh, while four of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cases come from the southern districts of the province.
In its statement, the polio programme stressed that the new case shows why no district can yet be considered safe. “This is the second case reported from Khyber District this year — and the sixth from KP province — underscoring that no child will be safe from polio until all children are consistently vaccinated and protected across the country,” the statement said. Officials urged parents to make sure every child under five receives the oral polio vaccine in the coming campaign and in every round that follows.
The Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative has opened a full investigation into the case and is studying what it calls a science-based response. That response, officials said, will include targeted vaccination activities in the affected area and support to strengthen routine immunisation, so that children who missed earlier doses are caught up through the regular health system rather than only during campaigns.
The case also fits a wider pattern that worries health officials. Positive environmental samples — traces of poliovirus found in sewage testing — have been recorded in the Peshawar block, which covers Peshawar and Khyber districts, indicating that the virus is still circulating in the area even where individual cases are not always detected. Environmental surveillance is one of the programme’s main early-warning tools, and repeated positive samples in a block are treated as a signal to intensify vaccination there.
The timing matters because the next subnational campaign begins on Monday, November 2, and runs until November 8. It will cover 97 districts and aims to vaccinate nearly 24 million children under five. It is the fifth large vaccination drive of 2026 and the third subnational round of the year, and it will mobilise more than 200,000 frontline polio workers who go door to door, staff fixed vaccination points and cover transit points such as bus stations and border crossings.
Pakistan’s long fight against polio has produced dramatic progress over three decades. Thanks to vaccination, the country has cut cases by 99.8 per cent, from an estimated 20,000 cases in the early 1990s to 31 cases in 2025 and eight so far in 2026. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus still circulates, which is why health officials describe every remaining case as a reminder that the virus can return quickly wherever immunity gaps remain.
Those gaps persist for several reasons. Polio campaigns in Pakistan have long been hampered by misinformation and vaccine refusals, with some families wrongly believing the vaccine is harmful, and by attacks by militant groups on vaccination teams and their security escorts. Officials say both problems make it harder to reach every child in every round, and that a single missed round in a high-risk district can be enough for the virus to find unprotected children.
What happens next will be watched closely in the coming week. If the November 2-8 campaign reaches its target in Khyber and the other 96 districts, it should raise immunity in exactly the areas where the virus is circulating. Health officials will also be watching the results of the case investigation and the next rounds of environmental sampling in the Peshawar block for signs of whether transmission is slowing. A further case in the same district, or more positive sewage samples, would point to deeper immunity gaps and could trigger additional targeted rounds.
For parents, the programme’s message is simple and repeated in every announcement: bring every child under five to be vaccinated in the November 2-8 campaign, and keep routine immunisation up to date afterwards. The new Khyber case shows that the virus is still present in the province, but officials say the tools to stop it — a proven vaccine, a large workforce and a campaign starting on Monday — are already in place.
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