Pakistan recorded its fourth polio case of the year last week, with its status as one of only two countries where the virus remains endemic (the other being Afghanistan) remaining intact. The case came just a day after the prime minister reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to achieving the shared goal of completely eradicating polio during a meeting with a delegation from the Gates Foundation, praising the latter’s role in combatting polio. While the disease remains endemic, the country has made significant progress against the virus. Cases have declined by 99.8 per cent from the early 1990s, when there were an estimated 20,000 cases, to just 31 in 2025. The total of four cases thus far this year represents another major reduction and one hopes that the trend will hold. However, totally eradicating the disease still remains a struggle, with the ability of the virus to endure intersecting with other national problems like the security situation. The Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme has noted that three of this year’s four cases are from Bannu Division in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where security-related access constraints have resulted in children missing critical vaccination, allowing wild poliovirus to continue circulating. With the next door-to-door vaccination campaign set to take place from September 21 to September 27, the Emergency Operation Centre Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has reportedly planned to prioritise high-risk districts.
Of course, polio teams are not just bystanders who happen to be impacted when it comes to security issues. They and their protectors have often been the targets of deliberate violence, with the attacks continuing into 2026. Administering life-saving vaccines to a child or guarding those who do so is a life-threatening occupation in Pakistan. Then there is a whole other vector of vaccine disruption that seeks to convince parents and others that they are actually somehow putting their children at risk by getting them vaccinated. While authorities have claimed that vaccine refusals are declining, experts maintain that misinformation and rumours remain a challenge. This is perhaps the greatest shame of the polio scourge. The country might have eliminated it had not been a significant segment bent on frustrating efforts to counter it. That being said, the decline in vaccine refusals is as encouraging as the decline in cases and is proof that the authorities are taking the problem seriously. The Punjab Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication has decided to establish a doctors’ task force to counter rumours and misinformation related to polio, address parents’ concerns and further strengthen confidence in vaccination while progress in Sindh, which has recorded just one polio case this year, has also been linked to community engagement and awareness efforts by the province’s EOC coordinator.
The country is also moving towards better care for the heroic frontline health workers who are beating back this disease and putting their lives on the line. The Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) has announced a 28 per cent increase in the daily stipend for over 400,000 campaign-based frontline workers ahead of the next sub-national campaign. Engagement with global partners, support for frontline workers, addressing security problems and countering misinformation will all be key to finally eradicating the virus. It is good to see the authorities focusing on all of these areas and the country making progress despite cuts to international aid. Pakistan has come very far to bring polio cases down to where they are today, but the fight is not over and the country has come close to eradication before only to suffer regression. That cannot happen again.
