Mustafa Kamal warns of 'thousands of polio cases' in Sindh

KARACHI: Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal on Saturday said that all environmental samples of Karachi and other districts of Sindh have been detected positive.

Speaking here Kamal warned that thousands of cases could surface in Sindh if children not being vaccinated in Sindh proactively.

Federal minister urged for observing caution, advising parents to get their children being compulsorily vaccinated.

He said the anti-polio vaccine could not be administered in some areas owing to security issues.

Pakistan’s final nationwide anti-polio campaign of 2025 failed to achieve its full target.

The campaign managed to reach 98.6 per cent of its intended target, leaving nearly 900,000 children without polio vaccination.

The last national polio campaign of the year was conducted from 15 to 21 December. However, no national or sub-national polio campaign during the year succeeded in meeting its complete target in Pakistan.

During the campaign, 872,776 children remained unvaccinated. Of these, 669,326 children were not available at the time of vaccination, sources said and added security concerns and boycotts resulted in 148,774 children missing vaccination, while 54,676 parents refused to allow their children to be vaccinated.

Provincial data shows that 331,000 children in Punjab and around 250,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were not vaccinated. In Sindh, 238,982 children missed vaccination, while the figure stood at 43,339 in Balochistan.

In Islamabad, 6,000 children were not vaccinated, while 3,026 children in Gilgit-Baltistan and 1,272 in Azad Kashmir missed polio drops.

Sindh recorded 32,947 cases of parental refusal, while 21,085 refusal cases were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.