Fourth National Immunisation Campaign Kicks Off Across Pakistan

Pakistan's fourth national immunisation campaign of the year began, targeting more than 40 million children under five across the country.

Why four national rounds

Campaign sequencing is timed against the transmission season rather than spread evenly through the calendar. Poliovirus transmission in Pakistan follows a seasonal curve — suppressed in the cooler months, building from mid-year and peaking in the second half.

The aim is to raise population immunity before the peak rather than react to it. Rounds are therefore concentrated where they do most good epidemiologically, not where they are most convenient operationally.

Between national rounds, sub-national rounds cover districts selected by risk assessment, and case-response rounds follow any confirmed case or positive environmental sample. See the eradication strategy.

What a national round takes

• Hundreds of thousands of frontline workers, recruited and retrained for each round.
• Microplans for every union council in the country.
• A cold chain holding from national stores to the last village.
• Around 500 permanent transit points catching children who are travelling.
• Security coordination in high-risk districts.
• Independent post-campaign monitoring to verify what was achieved.

The risk in repetition

Running four national rounds a year has a cost the programme takes seriously: campaign fatigue, in both households and teams. Families tire of answering the door for the same request; workers tire of the pace; and tired teams produce the failure mode that matters most — houses marked as covered where the child was never actually vaccinated.

This is why the strategy after 2019 shifted toward fewer, better-supervised rounds rather than maximum frequency, and why independent finger-mark checking became central. See the 2019 reversal.

Integrated delivery

Increasingly, campaign rounds are paired with health camps offering routine immunisation, maternal health and nutrition services. This addresses a reasonable complaint from underserved communities — that enormous effort goes into polio drops while their children lack basic health services — and changes the interaction from a repeated request into an exchange.

For parents

Two drops for every child under five in every round. If your child was away, take them to a fixed vaccination point rather than waiting. Complete the routine EPI schedule. Call 1166 if no team arrives.

Related: upcoming nationwide campaign · third national campaign of 2025