ISLAMABAD(National times)- The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has confirmed two new polio cases from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, raising the country’s tally for 2025 to 26. The laboratory said the latest cases involve a 19-month-old girl from Union Council Mir Ali in District North Waziristan and an 11-month-old girl from Union Council Suleman Khel in District Lakki Marwat. With these detections, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounts for 18 of the total reported cases this year, followed by Sindh with six, and one each in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan, the regional laboratory added. 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 (OPV) for every child under five during each campaign, alongside timely completion of all routine immunisations. Despite significant progress, the continued detection of polio cases, particularly in southern KP, remains a serious concern. It underscores that children in hard-to-access areas and those with low vaccine acceptance continue to be at risk. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s polio surveillance system tested 126 environmental samples from 87 districts during August. Of these, 75 samples were declared negative while 51 tested positive for poliovirus. Sindh recorded the highest proportion of positive samples with 24, followed by Punjab with 14, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 10, and one each in Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Islamabad. Encouragingly, Balochistan showed a marked reduction in positive sites, down from 19 in January to just one in August, the regional laboratory added. Last month, two new cases of poliovirus were confirmed from south Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — one from district Tank and the other from district North Waziristan. The cases included a 16-month-old girl from Union Council Mullazai, District Tank, and a 24-month-old girl from Union Council Miran Shah-3, District North Waziristan.