Pakistan will vaccinate more than 45 million children against polio during its first nationwide immunisation campaign of 2026, the country’s National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said on Saturday.
The campaign will run from Feb. 2 to Feb. 8 and will be carried out simultaneously in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan, the NEOC said in a statement.
More than 400,000 male and female health workers will take part in the drive, which targets all children under the age of five. Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that can cause permanent paralysis, and repeated vaccination is the only effective protection.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where transmission of the wild poliovirus has never been fully interrupted, posing a continuing challenge to global eradication efforts.
Pakistan conducted six nationwide anti-polio campaigns in 2025, reducing the number of reported cases to 30 from 74 the previous year, according to official data.
The NEOC urged parents to cooperate with vaccination teams to protect children from lifelong disability.
