Pakistan’s final anti-polio drive of 2025 'falls short of target'

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s final nationwide anti-polio campaign of 2025 failed to achieve its full target, ARY News reported on Sunday, citing official sources.

According to sources, 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.

Sources further stated that vaccination coverage remained below 95 per cent in eight districts, while 111 districts recorded coverage between 95 and 100 per cent.

Earlier, it was reported, citing sources, that the nationwide anti-polio drive, held in October, ‘failed’ to achieve set targets.

The campaign ran nationwide from October 13 to 19, aiming to vaccinate over 45 million children, the sources said.

However, 1,096,525 children missed out on the vaccine, with 721,296 children unavailable for vaccination. Additionally, there were 53,621 reported cases of vaccine refusal during the campaign.