Karachi reports first polio case in 18 months as P...

Summary

• Pakistan has reported its seventh polio case of 2026 after a six-month-old boy from Karachi’s East district tested positive for wild poliovirus marking the city’s first reported infection in more than 18 months.
• The NEOC reported that only one environmental surveillance site in the city tested positive in September although unvaccinated and otherwise vulnerable children remain at risk while the virus continues to circulate.
• The Karachi case follows the sixth infection identified in a seven-year-old boy in Khyber district, KP around two weeks earlier.

AI Generated Summary

Pakistan has reported its seventh polio case of 2026 after a six-month-old boy from Karachi’s East district tested positive for wild poliovirus marking the city’s first reported infection in more than 18 months.

The National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) confirmed the case on October 19, saying the child belongs to Jamali Colony union council. The infection was detected through the country’s polio surveillance network and confirmed by the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institutes of Health in Islamabad.