Pakistan, Sept. 30 -- Pakistan has reported its fifth polio case of the year, this time, a 17-month-old girl in Bannu. The national tally is encouragingly small compared with 31 cases last year and 74 in 2024. That four of this year's five cases have come from Bannu Division, three from Bannu district itself, is becoming hard to ignore.

Polio is being pushed back across much of Pakistan while holding its ground in precisely those places where vaccination teams have the least room to operate.

Those standing at the wheel need to realise how paralysis is only the visible end of poliovirus transmission. Most poliovirus infections produce no obvious symptoms, while roughly one in 200 leads to irreversible paralysis.

A handful of paralysed c...