With one more poliovirus case, Pakistan's tally reaches 18 in 2025
Peshawar, Aug 1 (PTI): A new case of poliovirus was detected in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province taking the total number across Pakistan this year to 18, authorities said Friday.
The latest case was confirmed by the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Islamabad earlier in the day.
NIH reports confirm that the virus was detected in a 10-month-old child from Union Council Molazai in the Tank district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
This is the 11th confirmed case of polio in the province in 2025, raising renewed concerns over the ongoing efforts to eradicate the virus.
With Friday's confirmation, the total number of polio cases in Pakistan in 2025 has risen to 18. Apart from the 11 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, five are from Sindh, and one each is from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.
A special vaccination campaign was held from July 21-27 in the bordering area of the province and Baluchistan to coincide with Afghanistan’s sub-national polio campaign.
Despite substantial progress in polio eradication efforts, the continued detection of polio cases underscores the persistent risk to children, especially in areas where vaccine acceptance remained low, a statement from the NIH said.
Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic.
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US VP JD Vance says Lebanon not part of ceasefire, calls it ‘misunderstanding’
Budapest/Washington: US Vice President J D Vance has said that Lebanon was never included in the ceasefire understanding with Iran, describing the confusion as a “legitimate misunderstanding”.
Speaking to reporters before departing from Hungary, Vance said, “I think the Iranians thought that the ceasefire included Lebanon and it just didn’t. We never made that promise.”
He stressed that the United States had not included Lebanon in the scope of the ceasefire at any stage.
His remarks come amid continued Israeli strikes in Lebanon, where more than 200 people were reported killed, even as ceasefire talks between Iran and the US move forward.
Vance said Israel had “offered … to check themselves a little bit in Lebanon because they want to make sure that our negotiation is successful”.
He warned that if Iran allows the situation in Lebanon to affect the negotiations, it could derail the talks.
“If Iran wants to let this negotiation fall apart in a conflict where they were getting hammered over Lebanon, which has nothing to do with them and which the United States never once said was part of the ceasefire, that’s ultimately their choice,” he said.
