ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities working to eradicate polio expressed cautious optimism this week, telling donors that the country was on the path to recovery after recording alarmingly high case numbers last year, thanks to closer coordination with provinces and international partners.
Polio is a crippling disease with no cure, and multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine, along with timely completion of routine immunization for children under five, are essential to building protection against the virus.
Pakistan reported 74 polio cases in 2024. So far, six children have been diagnosed with the virus in the first three months of this year. The government has planned several nationwide immunization campaigns in 2025 to address immunity gaps.
“We are on road to recovery but not yet there,” Muhammad Anwarul Haq, a senior official at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC), said during the briefing, according to a social media post by the center on Thursday.
“Working closely with provinces and partners, we will optimize gains from national campaigns scheduled in April and May besides improving essential immunization coverage in key pockets of concern,” he added.
Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication, Ayesha Raza Farooq, thanked donors for their sustained commitment to a polio-free world and acknowledged both the program’s progress and the hurdles that remain.
She urged continued efforts to close remaining immunity gaps swiftly to interrupt transmission in 2025.
Pakistan’s polio eradication program was launched in 1994, but progress has been hampered by persistent vaccine misinformation and resistance from conservative clerics who claim immunization is a foreign conspiracy. Militant violence has also targeted polio workers in parts of the country.
The donor briefing was attended by representatives of several international entities, including UNICEF, the World Health Organization, Gates Foundation and Islamic Development Bank.