Islamabad, Apr 19 (PTI) The second nation-wide anti-polio campaign of 2025 will begin on Monday when 45.4 million children up to the age of five would be administered oral polio drops across Pakistan.

More than 4,00,000 frontline workers will participate in the seven-day campaign aiming to administer polio drops to these children across 159 districts in the country, according to a spokesperson of the Anti-Polio Programme.

The government will be conducting the high-quality campaigns with special focus on high-risk areas such as southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Quetta, and Karachi, the spokesperson said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Pakistan, along with Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic countries in the world.

The presence of the polio virus in several regions of the country still poses a serious threat, which is why repeated vaccination is essential for securing children’s future, officials said.

The first nation-wide campaign was launched by Pakistan Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif on February 2.

Six cases of the poliovirus have been reported in 2025 till March 1 and no new case of the crippling disease has been reported since then.

There were a total of 74 cases in 2024.

A meeting to review polio eradication efforts, chaired by Sharif on Thursday was informed that the break in the spread of the virus was due to the rigorous nationwide polio vaccination campaigns, a local media report said.

The prime minister commended the relevant government institutions, international organisations and partners who are working to make Pakistan polio-free and directed the authorities to ensure awareness and community mobilisation regarding the polio vaccination campaigns across the country.

The WHO, with UNICEF and other key partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, supports the government of Pakistan in polio eradication efforts to ensure that the country achieves polio-free status, the WHO said.

During Thursday’s meeting, Sharif was told that a third-party validation of the campaign will be completed from April 28 to 30.

“Despite challenging conditions, healthcare workers participating in anti-polio campaigns are playing a frontline role in the fight against this disease,” the prime minister told the meeting.

The main challenge for Pakistan is to convince reluctant parents, who are influenced by the propaganda of extremists and refuse to allow vaccination.

The spokesperson urged parents to fully cooperate with polio teams to ensure that every child is protected from the disease.

Also, extremists regularly attack polio workers as they allege that the vaccines are a conspiracy to sterile Muslims. More than 150 people linked to the polio drive have been killed across Pakistan since 2012.

On April 14, unknown gunmen abducted two polio vaccinators at gunpoint in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when they were en route Dera Ismail Khan from Kulachi in a passenger bus. PTI SH AYZ NPK NPK