Closing in on eradication, Pakistan launches decisive polio vaccination drive
Pakistan has launched what officials describe as its final nationwide anti-polio vaccination drive of 2025, a campaign aimed at halting a recent rise in cases and pushing the country closer to eradicating the virus.
The week-long drive, which began on Monday, targets about 45 million children under the age of five across all provinces and territories, including Islamabad, according to the government’s Polio Eradication Initiative.
It follows the confirmation of 30 polio cases so far this year, a sharp improvement on last year’s toll but still a reminder that transmission persists.
More than 400,000 frontline vaccinators are moving door to door, supported by thousands of police officers deployed amid intelligence warnings of possible militant attacks. Vaccination teams have repeatedly been targeted by extremists who claim, without evidence, that polio campaigns are a Western plot.
Health Minister Mustafa Kamal urged families to cooperate with vaccination teams, warning that complacency could reverse gains. Each new infection, he said, risks condemning a child to lifelong paralysis while keeping communities vulnerable to wider outbreaks.
Afghanistan is the only other country where polio remains endemic. Officials said synchronised drives on both sides of the border are essential to interrupt cross-border transmission, which has historically undermined national progress.
Despite the latest cases, health authorities pointed to a dramatic long-term decline. Pakistan has reduced polio incidence by more than 99 per cent since the 1990s, cutting tens of thousands of annual cases to a few dozen. Two of the three strains of wild poliovirus once circulating in the country have already been eliminated.
That progress was underscored at a recent World Health Organization and Aga Khan University forum in Karachi, where international and national experts concluded that eradication in Pakistan is scientifically achievable.
Pakistan’s programme is often cited as one of the most extensive public health operations in the world, with a dense network of emergency operation centres and one of the most sensitive surveillance systems globally.
International advisers said the remaining challenge is not the effectiveness of the vaccine but reaching every last child, particularly in insecure or hard-to-access areas.
Officials described the current campaign as part of the “last mile” — the most difficult phase of eradication, when case numbers are low but the risk of resurgence is high.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
