Polio eradication campaign 2026: oral drops administered to 17.3m children in Punjab

LAHORE: The Punjab government this week carried out a province-wide polio eradication campaign, administering oral polio drops to 17.3 million children.

According to official sources, the successful drive continued for five days, during which 1.527 million children were vaccinated in Lahore alone.

The campaign covered 35 districts across Punjab, all of which were successfully targeted, according to the head of the Polio Eradication Program.

Parents and guardians have been advised to report any children who missed vaccination by calling the helpline 1166, said Adeel Tasawar.

The nationwide anti-polio drive was also conducted simultaneously in other parts of the country, including Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Balochistan.

In Sindh, officials reported that 1.04 million children were vaccinated against the crippling disease.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, around 7.1 million children received polio drops, while 2.1 million children were vaccinated in Balochistan.

According to the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), more than 673,000 children were vaccinated in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, over 261,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan, and more than 455,000 children in Islamabad.

The NEOC further stated that over 400,000 anti-polio workers participated in the campaign, going door to door to ensure vaccination of children under five years of age. The administration of the polio vaccine to every child below the age of five is mandatory.

The campaign is being conducted simultaneously in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the two remaining polio-endemic countries.

Since 1994, the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme has been working to eliminate the poliovirus from the country. The initiative is supported by one of the world’s largest disease surveillance networks, trained frontline workers, advanced laboratories, quality data analysis, and leading national and international public health experts.