In Lahore a child receives polio drops during the polio vaccination campaign. WHO/Anam Sairah Khan19 September 2017 – Pakistan, being one of the last 3 polio-endemic countries in the world, has launched the first national immunization days campaign of the 2017–2018 low transmission season during which more than 37 million children under the age of 5 will be vaccinated against polio. The campaign is taking place in all the districts/agencies of the country with a few local operational adjustments. 

Over 250 000 trained and dedicated frontline workers are vaccinating children in all corners of Pakistan this week by going from house to house. To ensure maximum coverage, the core polio reservoirs of Karachi, Quetta block, Khyber Agency and Peshawar, will be covered through community-based vaccination approach, in which the team members are nominated and selected from the community itself.

The current polio epidemiology in the country is best ever observed. The number of wild poliovirus cases has declined from 306 in 2014 to 54 in 2015 and only 20 in 2016. Momentum is maintained in 2017 where the current case count of 4 compares to 16 at same point in time during 2016.

To stop the poliovirus transmission and achieve high population immunity, the Pakistan polio programme is implementing an intense vaccination campaign schedule. The current campaign is the first of the 9 high-quality supplementary immunization activities, including 5 national immunization days, to be implemented in Pakistan during the 2017–2018 low transmission season for polio.