Pakistan's Punjab region has registered its first polio case in four years.

The region had last registered a case in 2020.

An official from the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication, located in the National Institute of Health (NIH), confirmed that the latest victim is a six-year-old male child from the Chakwal district, reported Dawn News.

This is the 12th polio case reported in Pakistan this year.

“The latest victim is over six years old, indicating possible immunity-related issues,” an official told Dawn News. “We are currently in the eighth month of the year and have already doubled last year’s total of six cases. This suggests that the polio situation in the country is worsening.”

“Now the only good news is that not a single case of polio has been reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.