ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health authorities will aim to vaccinate over 45 million children in the year’s second nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said on Monday.
Pakistan conducted its first nationwide polio campaign of the year in January, vaccinating more than 45 million children.
Polio is a highly contagious viral disease that can cause permanent paralysis, mainly in children under the age of five. Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where the disease remains endemic.
“The second national polio eradication campaign of 2026 will be held across the country from Apr. 13 to Apr. 19,” the NEOC said in a statement.
“During the campaign, more than 45 million children will be administered polio drops.”
The NEOC said children will be given an additional dose of vitamin A during the campaign, adding that around 413,000 polio volunteers will take part in the door-to-door vaccination campaign.
In Punjab, authorities aim to vaccinate more than 23 million children and in Sindh, more than 10.6 million. In the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, more than 7.2 million will be administered polio drops while in Balochistan, more than 2.6 million children will be vaccinated, the NEOC said.
In Islamabad, more than 460,000 children will be administered polio drops, in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, more than 228,000 will be vaccinated. The NEOC said it expects to see more than 760,000 children vaccinated for polio in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir region during the seven-day campaign.
“To secure the future of the nation, parents should fully cooperate with polio workers,” the NEOC said. “To protect children under the age of five from polio, they must be given two drops.”
Pakistan reported its first wild poliovirus case of the year earlier this month when a four-year-old girl tested positive for the infection.
Pakistan reported 31 polio cases in 2025. Southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accounted for more than half of the country’s polio cases in 2025, with 17 of the 31 infections reported from the region.
According to health authorities, 74 cases were reported in 2024.
More than 200 polio workers and police officers assigned to protect polio teams have been killed in Pakistan since the 1990s, according to health and security officials.
Militants often falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are part of a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children.
