KARACHI: Pakistan has vaccinated more than 41.6 million children throughout the country as part of an ongoing polio immunization campaign nationwide, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said on Friday.
The week-long campaign launched on Monday, with officials aiming to reach over 45 million children across Pakistan, amid efforts to eradicate the paralytic disease. Pakistan is one of only two countries alongside Afghanistan where wild poliovirus still remains an endemic.
According to the NEOC, 22.5 million children have so far been vaccinated in Punjab, 9.3 million in Sindh, 5.9 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 2.3 million in Balochistan, 367,000 in Islamabad, 293,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 729,000 children in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The South Asian country, which is home to 241 million people, has reported 29 polio cases so far this year, including 18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine in Sindh and one each in Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.
“Joint and sustained efforts continue for the complete eradication of polio,” the NEOC said, warning that polio “is a dangerous disease that can cause lifelong paralysis.”
“The success of the anti-polio campaign depends heavily on the support of parents and the community.”
The vaccination campaign will be conducted in KP’s southern districts from Oct. 20 onwards.
Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated doses of the Oral Polio Vaccine for every child under five during each campaign, alongside timely completion of all routine immunizations.
Pakistan has made remarkable progress since the 1990s, when annual polio cases exceeded 20,000, bringing them down to just eight by 2018. However, the country recorded 74 cases in 2024 — a sharp increase from six in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Vaccine hesitancy fueled by misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners still hinder eradication efforts. In remote and volatile areas, vaccination teams often operate under police protection, though security personnel themselves have also been targeted and killed in attacks by militant groups.
