Pakistan kicks off nationwide polio vaccination campaign targeting 45 million children

Dubai: A nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign was launched on Monday, aiming to inoculate more than 45 million children across Pakistan against the crippling poliovirus, Geo News reported.

Health workers have begun going door-to-door in Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to administer polio drops to children as part of the drive.

The campaign comes weeks after Pakistan’s polio case tally for 2025 rose to 31, following the detection of the virus in a four-month-old girl from Union Council Spinwam-2 in North Waziristan.

Provincial figures for this year stand at 20 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine in Sindh, one in Punjab and one in Gilgit-Baltistan — a significant drop from 74 cases recorded in 2024.

In Sindh, the health department said more than 80,000 polio workers will vaccinate over 10 million children during a seven-day campaign running from February 2 to February 8.

To ensure security, 7,703 police officers have been deployed across Karachi, with 2,724 assigned to the East Zone, 2,900 to the West Zone and 2,070 to the South Zone, according to a police spokesperson.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah formally launched the drive by administering polio drops to children at a school in Karachi’s Chanesar Goth area.

In Punjab, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s focal person on polio eradication, Ayesha Raza Farooq, said the vaccination campaign remains a top government priority.

A four-day drive has begun in Rawalpindi, targeting 1.57 million children with the help of 8,000 polio workers. Similar campaigns were launched in Lodhran, where 1,459 teams aim to vaccinate more than 385,000 children.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a five-day campaign is underway, targeting 6.5 million children. Around 35,000 vaccination teams and 50,000 police personnel have been deployed, with more than 800,000 children expected to be vaccinated in Peshawar alone.

Meanwhile, Balochistan has launched a seven-day vaccination drive to inoculate over 2.6 million children, supported by 11,000 teams across the province.

Polio, caused by the poliovirus, spreads mainly through contaminated food and water, particularly in areas with poor sanitation. Health officials continue to stress that vaccination remains the most effective way to prevent the disease.