28.2 million children vaccinated in weeklong polio campaign; three Punjab districts to follow

More than 28.2 million children were vaccinated against polio in a weeklong nationwide campaign that ended on Sunday, officials said, as Pakistan heads into the low-transmission season with only four cases recorded so far this year.

The campaign ran from 21 to 27 September across 112 districts, with about 273,000 health workers going door to door, Dawn reported.

Children vaccinated by region

Region	Districts	Children vaccinated
Sindh	30	10.1 million
Punjab	10	8 million
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa	37	7 million
Balochistan	32	2.3 million
Islamabad		443,000
Gilgit-Baltistan	2	140,000
Total	112	28.2 million

In Punjab, the campaign was held in 10 districts. It was postponed in three districts of south Punjab: Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rajanpur, where it will be carried out separately.

Punjab, the country’s most populous province, accounted for 8 million of the children reached, second only to Sindh. Together, Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa made up more than 25 million of the 28.2 million total.

Four cases so far this year

Pakistan has reported four polio cases in 2026: three in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one in Sindh.

That is a sharp fall from recent years. The country recorded 74 cases in 2024 and about 30 in 2025, according to figures compiled on Wikipedia from official data.

“The ongoing calendar year has proved to be much better in terms of performance,” said Anwarul Haq, head of the Pakistan Polio Programme. “Moreover, as we have entered into the low-transmission season, there are fewer chances of polio cases.”

The low-transmission season, when the virus circulates less, is when programmes try to reach as many children as possible so that fewer are left unprotected when transmission picks up again.

Security still stands in the way

Not every area can be reached. A polio expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Dawn that security remained a serious problem in Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, “where not only polio campaigns are stopped, but at times polio team workers are also kidnapped.”

One of the last two countries

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world where polio is still endemic, meaning the wild virus has never been fully stopped. The disease, which mainly affects children under five, can cause permanent paralysis and has no cure; it can only be prevented through repeated doses of vaccine.

Pakistan’s campaign against polio began in 1974, and formal eradication efforts started in 1994. In 2014, the country had the highest number of polio cases in the world.

Why it matters

With four cases by the end of September, this year is well below the totals of 2024 and 2025, and officials hope that high coverage in the low-transmission season can keep the numbers down. But the gaps remain the same as before: children in insecure parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa such as Bannu, and districts where campaigns have to be postponed. As long as the virus survives anywhere in the country, every child who misses a dose is at risk.

Children’s health is not the only concern this week: on World Heart Day, doctors warned that Pakistani women have the highest heart disease death rate in South Asia.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn, with historical case figures from Wikipedia.