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KARACHI: Pakistani authorities on Sunday reported three new polio cases across the country, taking the 2025 tally to 17 amid Islamabad’s efforts to eliminate the disease. 

Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that primarily affects young children and can cause permanent paralysis. There is no cure, but it can be prevented through multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and a complete routine immunization schedule, experts say.

Pakistan, one of only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic, the other being neighboring Afghanistan, has made significant gains in recent decades. Annual cases have fallen dramatically from an estimated 20,000 in the early 1990s to single digits by 2018.

However, the country has witnessed a worrying resurgence recently. Pakistan reported 74 cases in 2024, raising alarms among health officials and global partners supporting the eradication campaign. In contrast, only six cases were recorded in 2023 and just one in 2021.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, has confirmed three new polio cases— two from the districts of Lakki Marwat and North Waziristan in South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one from District Umerkot in Sindh,” Pakistan’s National Emergencies Operation Center said. 

 The new cases include a 15-month-old girl from District Lakki Marwat, a six-month-old girl from North Waziristan district and a 60-month-old boy from District Umerkot, the statement said.

Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province has reported the highest number of polio cases this year, 10, followed by five from Sindh and one each from Punjab and northern Gilgit-Baltistan region. 

The NEOC noted that despite “substantial progress” in polio eradication efforts, the new polio cases underscore the persistent risk to children, especially in areas where vaccine acceptance remains low.

“It is crucial for communities to understand that poliovirus can resurface wherever immunity gaps exist,” it said. “Every unvaccinated child is at risk and can also pose a risk to others.”

The NEOC said an anti-polio vaccination campaign is currently underway, which was launched from July21-27 in Pakistan’s union councils bordering Afghanistan. 

 It added that a polio vaccination campaign using doses of the IPV (Inactivated Polio Vaccine) and OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine) was started in southwestern Balochistan’s Chaman District on July 21, adding that the same campaign will expand to six more districts in the province starting from July 28.

The NEOC urged parents to cooperate with frontline polio workers in getting children vaccinated.

“Communities can protect themselves by actively supporting vaccination efforts, addressing misinformation, and encouraging others to vaccinate their children,” it added. 

Despite decades of effort, Pakistan’s polio eradication drive has faced persistent challenges, including misinformation about vaccines and resistance from conservative religious and militant groups who view immunization campaigns with suspicion.

Some clerics have claimed the vaccines are a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children or part of intelligence operations.

Vaccination teams and police providing security have also been targeted in militant attacks, particularly in remote and conflict-affected areas of KP and Balochistan. These threats have at times forced the suspension of campaigns and restricted access to vulnerable populations.
 

JHUDDO, Pakistan: On any given morning in this flood-ravaged town in southern Sindh, Shamim Akhtar’s team of three men fans out on motorbikes, collecting scrap metal and plastic from doorsteps. 

In return, they hand over household essentials: pots, mugs, jugs — items many families need but can no longer afford.

It’s a barter economy, resurrected not by nostalgia but by necessity.

Once a farmer scraping by on unstable harvests, Akhtar, now 48, has become a self-made entrepreneur, running what she calls a modern twist on a traditional system. The shift has brought her stability and income — nearly Rs50,000 ($175) in monthly profit — in a region where formal employment is rare and inflation relentless.

“What we do [in this business] is that we take scrap from people’s houses and in return give them new things,” Akhtar told Arab News.

“In old times, our mothers used to give some junk or grain from home and take edible items or some vegetables … We now have revived the same system that we give house utensils [in exchange for their scrap].”

RETHINKING LIVELIHOODS AFTER FLOODS

The transformation began in the aftermath of Pakistan’s devastating 2022 floods, which killed over 1,700 people and displaced millions. In Jhuddo, where vast stretches of farmland were inundated, Akhtar lost her crops and her confidence in agriculture.

“All our crops would get destroyed whenever the flood would hit us,” she said. “In the initial days of flooding, the NGOs or government would help us but later we used to face very tough financial conditions.”

Farming, once her only means of survival, was no longer viable. So she pivoted, choosing to barter in utensils, essential items that every household needs. With capital provided by Germany’s Malteser International relief agency, she set up shop with wholesale goods from Hyderabad, sold scrap to local junkyards, and launched a low-cost business model tailored to village economics.

“We don’t have a cost-intensive system of giving expensive stuff to the villagers which they can’t even afford,” Akhtar explained. “We are doing this trade at the village level and are giving stuff that the villagers can afford.”

The NGO-backed program, a €600,000, 36-month initiative implemented by the Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO), has helped more than 150 women launch nano-enterprises in climate-affected areas of Mirpurkhas district.

“Earlier, the people here mostly used to do farming and rear livestock, but now they have diversified [their sources of income] to business,” said Komal Jameel, a livelihood officer at SRSO.

“She [Akhtar] keeps giving us her data entry through digitalization on a daily basis. She tells our team how much loss and earnings she is making out of her business. This scrap exchange is a very good business.”

WOMEN LEAD NEW ECONOMIC MODELS

Across the region, other women are following suit. In Niaz Kapri village, 48-year-old Hameeda Tariq began a similar scrap-for-goods exchange after floods wiped out her family’s farmland and livestock. 

Working with her husband, who sources utensils from nearby cities, she now earns around Rs40,000 ($140) a month.

“Before starting this business, we used to work in the fields and domesticate livestock,” said Tariq, a mother of three. “What brought us here is the recurring incidents of flooding in our village that would damage our crops and kill our animals.”

In neighboring villages, women are testing other models: a cosmetics stall in Roshanabad, a spice business in Khuda Bux II, a beauty parlor and tuck shop in Mir Allah Bachayo union council. All operate on small grants and are tracked digitally via mobile apps provided by SRSO.

“So far we have given grants to 320 individuals for starting nano businesses, of which 50 percent are females,” said SRSO district project officer Maqsood Alam. 

“We are strengthening local stakeholders and communities so that they could head toward sustainable livelihood and we could protect them in terms of climate change.”

The return to barter, often dismissed as outdated, is gaining currency in places where cash flow is erratic, formal banking is inaccessible, and climate volatility threatens conventional trade.

“This is a miracle in the history of Jhuddo that a female shopkeeper is sitting there and five females are jointly running this business,” Alam said.

For Akhtar, the impact is not just economic, but personal.

“This [business] has had a huge impact on my family,” she said. “Now we are earning a very good income from this, Mashallah, and we are getting a lot of support because of this.”