PESHAWAR
\nThrough coordinated efforts at national level, polio cases in the country have been reduced by nearly 60 percent, falling from 74 infections in 2024 to 30 in 2025.
\n\u201cIn the outgoing year 2025, large scale nationwide polio immunization campaigns were launched for vaccination of 45 million children in the country,\u201d shares Zia ur Rehman, Spokesman for Polio Eradication Programme.
\nDuring these campaigns, 98 percent of children under the age of five in the target cohort received polio drops, significantly strengthening their immunity, Zia told APP.
\nIn each campaign, he continued, more than 400,000 vaccinators including 25,000 female visited door to door to administer polio drops to children in every nook and corner of the country.
\nZia also informed that due to strenuous efforts registration of environmental samples in different parts of the country is reduced drastically, confining only to few pockets in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa\u2019s Southern districts and Karachi.
\nSimilarly, he continued, no case of polio infection has been reported from any densely populated urban localities like Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar which were core reservoirs of polio virus.
\n\u201cThe number of districts affected by polio in the country has declined from 82 in 2024 to 36 in 2025,\u201d Zia added.
\nHe said the focus of health teams is to educate parents to ensure vaccination of their children in each campaign for boosting immunity of the minors.
\nZia noted that even if a child is already immunized, receiving polio drops during any nationwide campaign further boosts his immunity and enhances protection against infection.
\nHe said coordination between different Health departments including Federal Directorate of Immunization (FDI), Expanded Programme for Immunization (EPI), National Emergency Operation Center, Education Department and others are making the polio eradication efforts more effective and impactful.
\nIn the recently conducted Measles and Rubella immunization campaign targeting 35,167,257 number of children from 0 to 59 months, around 23,186,915 number of children were also administered Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV).
\nApart from strong coordination at the national level, international synchronization has also been achieved by simultaneously launching polio immunization campaigns in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only two countries in the world where polio cases are still reported.
\nPolio Eradication Spokesman informed that the upcoming polio eradication campaign starting from December 15, 2025 is fully synchronized with Afghanistan where vaccination will also be carried out nationwide.
\nMeanwhile, Health Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Khaliq-ur-Rehman, while talking with newsmen at the launching of polio immunization campaign in KP on Friday, said that efforts have been made to reach target children in Southern districts where security issues hamper complete coverage.
\nAdditional Security arrangements have been made in districts where security concerns are high and hopefully all the children will be administered polio preventive vaccine, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR Through coordinated efforts at national level, polio cases in the country have been reduced by nearly 60 percent, falling from 74 infections in 2024 to 30 in 2025. \u201cIn the outgoing year 2025, large scale nationwide polio immunization campaigns were launched for vaccination of 45 million children in the country,\u201d shares Zia ur Rehman, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-peshawar"],"yoast_head":"\n