ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) - Pakistan will vaccinate more than 31 million children under five across 115 high-risk districts from Sept 21-27 in a nationwide polio campaign aimed at closing immunity gaps and curbing continued transmission, officials said Tuesday.
Pakistan remains one of the countries where wild poliovirus continues to circulate, with four confirmed wild poliovirus type 1 cases reported so far in 2026: three in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and one in southern Sindh.
The drive will be synchronized with vaccination activities in neighboring Afghanistan in an effort to interrupt cross-border transmission, while more than 273,000 frontline workers will take part in the Pakistani campaign.
“The September campaign is an important opportunity to reach more than 31 million children in high-risk areas and strengthen population immunity against poliovirus,” Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s focal person for polio eradication, said.
“I urge parents and caregivers to support vaccination teams and ensure that all children under five are vaccinated during the campaign, even if they have received polio drops before.”
The polio initiative said continued detection of the virus through acute flaccid paralysis surveillance and environmental sampling showed the need to maintain high vaccination coverage and rapidly respond to areas where the virus was found.
Pakistan has conducted repeated nationwide and targeted vaccination campaigns as it seeks to halt the transmission of wild poliovirus, which can cause irreversible paralysis. More than 45 million children under five were targeted in three nationwide campaigns earlier this year.