ISLAMABAD — Pakistan has inoculated more than 28.1 million children against polio during its current sub-national immunization campaign, the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) for Polio Eradication announced Saturday, marking significant progress in the nation’s intensified push to eliminate the virus.
Poliomyelitis remains a highly infectious, incurable disease capable of causing permanent paralysis or death, though it is entirely preventable through vaccination. To date in 2024, the country has recorded four cases of wild poliovirus type 1—three in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Sindh.
Launched on September 21 across 115 districts, the campaign set a target of reaching approximately 31 million children. Current figures show over 7.9 million children vaccinated in Punjab, 10 million in Sindh, 7.1 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2.2 million in Balochistan, more than 443,000 in Islamabad, and 140,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
“Polio has no cure, but it is preventable through vaccination,” the NEOC stated. “Polio teams are at your doorsteps bringing a message of hope; we urge every family to cooperate with them.”
More than 273,000 frontline workers are executing the door-to-door effort, which concludes Sunday.
Pakistan has undertaken successive nationwide and targeted drives this year to interrupt wild poliovirus transmission, with three earlier campaigns targeting over 45 million children under five.
Despite these efforts, eradication campaigns have historically faced hurdles including vaccine hesitancy fueled by misinformation, community refusals, and security threats. Militant groups have frequently attacked vaccination teams, propagating false narratives that the vaccine is a Western conspiracy to induce infertility in Muslim children.
Underscoring the persistent security risks, unidentified assailants shot dead two police constables assigned to protect a vaccination team in Balochistan this week, according to local police. No organization has claimed responsibility.
Government data highlights the long-term trajectory of progress: cases have plummeted by 99.8 percent from an estimated 20,000 annually in the early 1990s to 31 reported in 2023.