PM reaffirms commitment to eradicate polio as cases drop sharply in 2026

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday reaffirmed the government’s resolve to completely eradicate polio from Pakistan, noting encouraging progress as only one case has been reported so far in 2026.

Chairing a high-level review meeting on polio eradication at the Prime Minister’s House, the premier appreciated the tireless efforts of anti-polio teams working across the country and reiterated that eliminating the disease remains a national priority.

The prime minister emphasised that sustained coordination between federal and provincial authorities, frontline workers, and partner organisations would remain essential to achieving the goal of a polio-free Pakistan.

During the briefing, the meeting’s participants were informed that only a single polio case had been reported this year from Sujawal district, compared with 74 cases in 2024 and 31 cases in 2025, reflecting a significant downward trend.

No cases have been reported so far in 2026 from Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Islamabad, Gilgit-Baltistan, or Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The officials further informed the meeting’s members that the number of polio-affected districts declined from 67 in the first quarter of 2025 to 23 in the first quarter of 2026. National household coverage during anti-polio campaigns remained consistently high at 98%.

The participants were told that improved access and enhanced vaccination efforts in the southern districts of KP had significantly reduced the number of children missing polio drops. A substantial decline in local transmission of the poliovirus was also recorded in the Quetta Block.

Read More: Lingering threat of polio

In Karachi, encouraging environmental surveillance results showed that poliovirus was not detected in 10 out of 12 environmental samples collected in March. Similarly, no polio case has been reported in Dera Ismail Khan district since September 2025, while the number of high-risk union councils in Bannu dropped sharply from 62 to just six.

The members were also informed that a strategy was being finalised to integrate the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) with the Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) at the federal and provincial levels.

Efforts were also underway to link certain interventions of the Benazir Income Support Programme with anti-polio measures to further strengthen outreach.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Minister for National Health Services Mustafa Kamal, Minister of State for National Health Services Malik Mukhtar Ahmad Bharath, Minister of State for Finance and Railways Bilal Azhar Kayani, and Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication Ayesha Raza Farooq, along with senior officials, attended the meeting.

Despite significant progress in recent years, Pakistan remains one of the few countries in the world where polio is still crippling children, with health authorities warning that continued vigilance and public cooperation are essential to stopping transmission.