Nationwide Campaign Commences to Vaccinate 35 Million Children

A nationwide polio vaccination campaign commenced, targeting 35 million children under five across Pakistan.

The scale of a national round

National immunisation days are among the largest coordinated public health operations conducted anywhere. Within a few days, teams have to reach every child under five in a country that spans mega-cities, high mountain valleys, desert districts and a long international border.

Delivering that requires:

• Hundreds of thousands of frontline workers, recruited and trained ahead of each round.
• Microplans for every union council, mapping each settlement, the children living in it, and which team covers it.
• A cold chain holding from national vaccine stores to a cool box in a village in mid-summer heat.
• Fixed vaccination sites and around 500 permanent transit points for children who are travelling.
• Security coordination in high-risk districts, planned against the same maps the teams use.
• Independent post-campaign monitoring to verify what was actually achieved.

Pakistan's target child population has grown over time — more recent national rounds have targeted around 45 million children.

Why every round, every time

Each dose of oral polio vaccine gives partial protection; immunity builds over repeated doses, and more doses are needed where diarrhoeal disease is common. Campaigns also reach children born since the last round and those who were away when teams last called.

This is the answer to the question parents ask most often at the door. The team is not repeating itself unnecessarily.

How success is judged

Not by children vaccinated, but by children missed — the number, the location, and the reason. Independent monitors check finger marks in sampled households after the round, because administrative coverage is self-reported and unreliable on its own.

A round can report very high national coverage and still fail, if the children who were missed are concentrated in the union councils where the virus is circulating. That is what produced the reversals in Pakistan's case record, including the rise from 8 cases in 2017 to 147 in 2019.

For parents

Make sure children under five are present when the team calls. If they were away, take them to a fixed vaccination point rather than waiting. Complete the routine EPI schedule alongside campaign drops. Call 1166 if no team reaches you.

Related: 40 million children campaign · eradication strategy