Pakistan Records Two Polio Cases Despite Vaccination Efforts

ISLAMABAD — Health officials in Pakistan announced on Friday the emergence of two new polio cases in the provinces of Sindh and Punjab, hindering Pakistan’s objective to completely eliminate the disease, a public health challenge that is still prevalent only in Pakistan and its neighboring country, Afghanistan.

Confirmed by the Pakistan Polio Eradication Program, these newly reported cases bring the total to five for the year, a sharp decline from the 74 cases recorded in 2024. Despite this progress, these latest infections highlight the ongoing challenges faced in the fight against polio.
Coinciding with this setback, health workers are completing a vaccination initiative in high-risk areas, having launched a nationwide anti-polio campaign targeting 44.2 million children under five earlier this month. Efforts include door-to-door delivery of the oral vaccine by polio teams, accompanied by police escorts.

These critical efforts are often met with violent resistance; extremists circulate unfounded claims that the vaccination campaign is a Western conspiracy aimed at sterilizing Muslim children. This makes the job perilous, and since the 1990s, more than 200 health workers and police officers dedicated to these efforts have lost their lives in militant attacks.