ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has vaccinated more than 23.8 million children during the first six days of a sub-national anti-polio campaign in 97 districts, health authorities said on Sunday, as the country steps up efforts to eradicate the crippling disease.

Pakistan launched the seven-day campaign to vaccinate 24 million children 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 nine wild poliovirus type 1 cases so far this year, including seven in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and two in Sindh in the country’s south. The country remains one of two nations worldwide that remains endemic to the virus.

The anti-polio campaign has continued uninterrupted in selected districts across the country since November 2, according to the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC)

"Over 200,000 frontline polio workers are participating in the ongoing campaign," the NEOC said in a statement. "This polio vaccination campaign is being conducted simultaneously in Pakistan and Afghanistan."

The NEOC urged parents to ensure the timely completion of their children's routine immunization schedule.

"Remember, polio is an incurable disease; vaccination is the only way to prevent it," it added.

Pakistan’s polio campaigns have long been hampered by misinformation and vaccine refusals, as well as attacks by militant groups, who falsely claim polio vaccines are part of a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children or cause infertility.

In September, unidentified gunmen killed two police constables deployed to protect a polio vaccination team in Balochistan. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

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.

The latest campaign is the fifth major drive of 2026, and the third subnational.