Pakistan on Monday launched its final nationwide anti-polio drive for 2025, according to ARY News, quoting the National Emergency Operations Centre (EOC). The seven-day campaign will continue until December 21 and aims to administer polio drops to over 45 million children across the country.
Provincial targets for the campaign include vaccinating more than 23 million children in Punjab, over 10.6 million in Sindh, more than 7.2 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 2.6 million in Balochistan. In the federal capital, Islamabad, over 460,000 children will receive polio drops. Gilgit-Baltistan will cover more than 228,000 children, while Azad Jammu and Kashmir targets over 760,000 children.
The National EOC stated that more than 400,000 male and female polio workers will be engaged during the drive. Highlighting the importance of public cooperation, the EOC underlined that protecting children from polio is a shared national responsibility and urged parents to ensure their children are vaccinated.
This drive follows a previous nationwide campaign held from October 13 to 19, which reportedly fell short of its targets. Over 1.09 million children missed vaccination during that campaign due to unavailability or refusal, with 721,296 children unavailable and 53,621 cases of vaccine refusal recorded.
Authorities stress that full parental cooperation is crucial for achieving polio eradication and safeguarding the country’s children against this debilitating disease.
