Pakistan on Tuesday reported a new polio case in Sindh’s Jacobabad district, taking the previous year’s tally to 71, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said in a statement. Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic, with the disease mostly affecting children under five, and sometimes causing lifelong paralysis. Despite global efforts to eradicate the virus, challenges such as security issues, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation have slowed progress. “The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of the 71st wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case of 2024 in the country,” the statement said. “On Tuesday, January 14, 2025, the lab confirmed one polio case from a male child from Jacobabad. The onset of this case was on December 27, 2024. Jacobabad has now reported 5 polio cases in 2024,” the NIH said. Pakistan has been responding to an intense resurgence of WPV1 with 71 cases reported in 2024. Of these, 27 are from Balochistan, 21 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 21 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.