ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday kicked off a third nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign of this year that aims to inoculate more than 45 million children under the age of five.

Polio is a paralyzing disease with no cure. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine, along with the completion of the routine immunization schedule for all children are essential to ensure strong immunity against the disease.

Pakistan has confirmed 10 cases so far this year, according to the polio program. Environmental surveillance has detected the virus in 272 sewage samples from 127 testing sites, across 68 districts, signaling continued circulation.

Inaugurating the campaign at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) in Islamabad, Health Minister Mustafa Kamal said community engagement was inevitable in eliminating the virus from Pakistan, urging parents to immunize all children under the age of five years.

“Protect your children from permanent disability by vaccinating them,” Kamal said, describing frontline anti-polio workers as the “real heroes.”

“Full-fledged community engagement is essential for the eradication of polio.”

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio remains endemic.

Pakistan’s polio program on Sunday described the weeklong campaign as a critical intervention in the country’s “final push” to interrupt poliovirus transmission and achieve eradication by end of 2025.

Around 400,000 frontline workers, including 225,000 women vaccinators, are taking part in the current campaign and will go door-to-door to inoculate children.

Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994, but efforts to eradicate the virus have been repeatedly undermined by vaccine misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners who claim that immunization is a foreign plot to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western espionage.

Militant groups have also frequently targeted polio vaccination teams and the security personnel assigned to protect them, often resulting in deadly attacks.