Pakistan has confirmed its ninth polio case of 2026, after a seven-month-old boy in Khyber district tested positive for the virus, health officials said on Thursday. The child is from Union Council Mastak in Bara tehsil, and the case was confirmed by the Regional Reference Laboratory in Islamabad.

According to the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), this is the third case reported from Khyber district this year and the seventh from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Sindh has recorded the other two cases, in Karachi East and Sujawal. Genetic testing of the virus found in all three Khyber cases shows links with strains circulating in Afghanistan, where 50 cases have been reported in 2026. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where wild poliovirus transmission has not yet been stopped.

Prime minister orders plan within a week

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed federal health officials and the polio programme to draw up a coordinated national strategy within seven days. At a review meeting at the Prime Minister's Office on Thursday, he told officials to visit all four provinces and consult chief ministers and chief secretaries before finalising the plan.

The latest case comes during a nationwide vaccination drive running from 2 to 8 November, which aims to reach around 24 million children under five across 97 districts. Pakistan recorded 74 polio cases in 2024 and 31 in 2025, so nine cases so far this year marks a sharp fall — but officials say detections in children and in sewage samples show the virus is still circulating. A polio campaign supervisor was also abducted by unidentified armed men in Jamrud on Wednesday, underlining the security risks faced by vaccination teams in the province. Probes Pakistan and Abb Takk News reported the case.