QUETTA: Pakistan reported its 14th poliovirus case this week from the southwestern Balochistan province, health authorities confirmed on Sunday, as the South Asian country struggles to grapple with an expanding outbreak of the infection. 

Polio is a highly infectious disease that affects children under the age of five by invading their nervous system, leading to paralysis or even death. Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries in the world where it is still endemic.

The latest case was reported from the southwestern district of Killa Saifullah in Balochistan, the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication confirmed on Saturday. A 22-year-old girl developed paralysis in both her legs on July 22 and passed a few days later, the NIH said. 

“The poliovirus is very smart in showing where there are significant immunity gaps and pointing out our problem areas,” Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s focal person for polio eradication, said in a statement. 

“Children in Balochistan are suffering the consequences of missed vaccination opportunities of the past.”

Muhammad Anwar ul Haq, coordinator of the National Emergency Center for Polio Eradication in Pakistan, noted that 11 of this year’s 14 polio cases have been reported from Balochistan, where the intensity of poliovirus transmission remains very high.

Pakistan’s efforts to contain polio have often been met with opposition, especially in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where militants have carried out attacks against vaccinators and the security teams guarding them. Many believe in the conspiracy theory that polio vaccines are part of a plot by Western outsiders to sterilize Pakistan’s population. 

Pakistani masses’ doubts regarding polio campaigns were exacerbated in 2011 when the US Central Intelligence Agency set up a fake hepatitis vaccination program to gather intelligence on former Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. 

Pakistani government officials have highlighted their plan to launch nationwide polio vaccination campaigns in September, October and December this year.