Afghanistan has recorded 42 cases of wild poliovirus type 1 so far this year, double the number reported in all of 2025, according to data from the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean regional office.
The WHO data, updated through Oct. 18, show Afghanistan has reported 42 cases in 2026, compared with 21 in 2025.
The latest increase follows reports of six additional cases, including three in Kandahar province, two in Nangarhar province and one in Kabul province. The Nangarhar cases were reported in Batikot and Goshta districts, while the Kabul case was recorded in Musahi district.
The figures mark a sharp increase from recent years. WHO data show Afghanistan recorded six wild poliovirus cases in 2023 and two in 2022. The 2026 tally is seven times the number recorded in 2023 and twice the total for all of 2025.
The increase comes as Afghanistan’s polio vaccination program continues to operate without house-to-house campaigns, a method WHO considers more effective for reaching children.
Taliban authorities restricted house-to-house polio vaccination in September 2024, after briefly allowing the method across most of the country earlier that year. WHO says house-to-house campaigns have not been implemented since October 2024, with vaccination drives instead relying largely on site-to-site approaches, including vaccination at mosques and other designated locations.
WHO has repeatedly warned that the change can leave children unvaccinated. Its Polio Emergency Committee said in August that the absence of house-to-house campaigns had led to lower-quality vaccination coverage, particularly in southern Afghanistan, where transmission of wild poliovirus remains intense.
The committee said site-to-site campaigns often fail to reach all children, particularly younger children, and warned that gaps in coverage could contribute to the further geographic spread of the virus. It urged the Afghanistan polio program to explore a return to house-to-house vaccination across the country.
WHO data also show a contrasting trend in neighboring Pakistan. Pakistan has recorded six wild poliovirus cases so far in 2026, compared with 31 in 2025. Combined, Afghanistan and Pakistan have recorded 48 cases this year through Oct. 18.
Afghanistan and Pakistan remain the only countries where transmission of wild poliovirus has never been interrupted.
Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that primarily affects young children and can invade the nervous system, causing irreversible paralysis. Vaccination is the primary tool for preventing infection and interrupting transmission.
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