November Polio Drive Targets 24 Million Children
Pakistan’s November polio drive will vaccinate around 24 million children under five in 97 selected districts from November 2 to 8. Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal launched the campaign in Islamabad on Friday at the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), where he administered the first drops of the round.
The drive will deploy more than 200,000 frontline polio workers. It is the fifth large vaccination drive of 2026, and the third subnational round of the year. Teams will go door to door to give children two drops of the oral polio vaccine.
“Polio eradication remains a national priority, and we are committed to sustaining our efforts until poliovirus transmission is interrupted across the country,” Kamal said at the launch. He urged parents to welcome vaccination teams and to ensure every child under five receives the drops, which he described as safe and effective.
November polio drive: where teams will work
The November polio drive will run at the same time in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The two countries are the last in the world where wild poliovirus remains endemic, and the NEOC said strong cross-border coordination would support the round.
The provincial breakdown shows the scale of the task. Punjab will cover 13 districts and vaccinate more than 9.278 million children. Sindh will target over 6.883 million children in 20 districts. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa will cover 27 districts and more than 4.808 million children, while Balochistan will cover 31 districts and over 2.217 million children.
Islamabad will vaccinate more than 447,000 children. Three districts in Gilgit-Baltistan will cover 153,000 children, and two districts in Azad Jammu and Kashmir will cover 183,000 children. Together, the figures add up to around 23.9 million children, which the programme rounds to 24 million.
Seven cases so far in 2026
Pakistan has reported seven wild poliovirus type 1 cases so far in 2026. Five cases were reported in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and two in Sindh. Kamal said transmission in southern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa was a key concern, and he pointed to targeted action, stronger coordination and sustained vaccination in the affected areas.
The minister also spoke of security and access problems in some areas. He said the federal government was working closely with provincial governments, district administrations and other stakeholders so that every child in the affected areas receives drops during the campaign.
Polio campaigns in Pakistan have long faced misinformation and vaccine refusals. They have also faced violence. Last month, unidentified gunmen killed two police constables deployed to protect a polio team in Balochistan, and no group claimed responsibility for that attack.
Why repeated rounds still matter
Polio is a highly contagious disease, and it has no cure. It can cause lifelong paralysis and, in some cases, death. Vaccination prevents it, but a child needs drops in every round. A dose in an earlier campaign does not remove the need for the next one.
The record shows how far the programme has come. Pakistan has cut polio cases by 99.8 per cent since the early 1990s, from an estimated 20,000 cases a year to 31 cases in 2025. Seven cases in 2026 show that the virus still circulates, and that high coverage in every round remains essential.
Kamal expressed confidence that Pakistan could become polio-free by June 2027. That target depends on rounds like this one reaching every child, including children in households that refused drops in earlier rounds.
Rawalpindi’s own round starts the same day
The national drive has a direct link to Rawalpindi. The garrison city will run its own campaign from November 2 after the United Nations Children’s Fund confirmed a substantial presence of poliovirus in the city’s sewage, particularly in Nullah Lai. Rawalpindi’s sewage findings forced a fresh campaign, and the district has set a target of reaching children in union councils where coverage stayed low.
Parents in Rawalpindi and elsewhere should therefore expect vaccination teams at their doors from November 2.
