KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday instructed authorities to digitize polio data across Pakistan as he presided over a meeting to review the country’s polio situation, following an alarming rise in cases last year.
Pakistan saw a significant resurgence of the poliovirus in 2024, with 74 cases reported nationwide. Of these, 27 were from Balochistan, 22 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 23 from Sindh and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
Polio is a paralyzing disease with no cure, and multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine, along with the completion of the routine vaccination schedule for children under five, are essential to providing immunity against the virus.
Last month, Pakistan concluded its first nationwide anti-polio campaign of 2025. So far, the country has reported six polio cases since the beginning of this year.
“A gradual decline in polio cases has been made possible due to the tireless efforts of provincial administrations,” Sharif said in a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office. “The complete eradication of polio from the country will only be possible with collaboration between federal and provincial governments.”
“All polio data must be digitized to strengthen our monitoring efforts,” he directed.
Officials briefed the prime minister on the progress of anti-polio efforts, saying the February campaign covered 42.5 million children, including nearly 90 percent of children in polio-affected districts.
Pakistan has planned three major polio campaigns in the first half of 2025, with the next rounds scheduled for April and May. Officials also told Sharif an IT dashboard is being used to track and monitor vaccination efforts in real time.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the last two countries in the world where polio remains an endemic.
Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies.
Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams.
