ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has launched a sub-national anti-polio vaccination in 115 districts to immunize 31 million children against the crippling disease between Sept. 21 and Sept. 27, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) for Polio Eradication said on Monday.

Polio is a highly contagious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis and, in some cases, death. It can be prevented through safe and effective polio vaccines. Pakistan has reported four wild poliovirus type 1 cases reported so far this year, including three in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and one in the southern Sindh province.

Health authorities aim to inoculate 10.6 million children in 13 districts of Punjab, 10 million in 30 districts of Sindh, 7.3 million in 37 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 2.3 million in 32 districts of Balochistan, 447,000 in federal capital of Islamabad, and 137,000 children in two districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, according to the NEOC.

“During the campaign, over 273,000 polio workers will perform duties across the country,” the NEOC said in a statement. “Parents are urged to fully cooperate with polio teams to protect their children’s healthy future.”

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

The vaccination drive is being synchronized with vaccination activities in neighboring Afghanistan in an effort to interrupt cross-border transmission, according to Pakistani health authorities.

“Polio workers reach every household, even in the most challenging circumstances, to protect every child,” the NEOC said.

“Every child under five must receive polio drops during this campaign.”

Pakistan has conducted repeated nationwide and targeted vaccination campaigns as it seeks to halt the transmission of wild poliovirus. More than 45 million children under five were targeted in three nationwide campaigns earlier this year.

However, Pakistan’s polio campaigns have long been hampered by misinformation and vaccine refusals, as well as militant attacks on vaccination workers and police officers assigned to protect them, particularly in KP and Balochistan. Militant groups falsely claim polio vaccines are part of a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children or cause infertility.

According to government data, Pakistan has reduced polio cases by 99.8 percent from an estimated 20,000 cases in the early 1990s to 31 last year.