What happened
Pakistan told the global Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) that it has entered a decisive phase in its fight against polio, saying the virus has been pushed back into a shrinking number of high-risk areas, Dawn reported on 27 July 2026.
The IMB, an independent oversight body of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, met from 20 to 23 July to assess global eradication efforts, with a particular focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan — the only two countries where wild poliovirus remains endemic. Pakistani officials addressed a high-level review meeting of the board in Geneva.
Officials told the board that Pakistan had reduced polio cases by 99.8 per cent since the early 1990s, when an estimated 20,000 children were paralysed each year. Reported cases fell from 74 in 2024 to 31 in 2025, and only three cases have been reported so far in 2026.
The delegation was led by Minister of State for Health Dr Malik Mukhtar Ahmad Bharath and included the prime minister’s focal person for polio eradication, Ayesha Raza Farooq, the chief secretaries of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, and National Emergency Operations Centre coordinator Muhammad Anwarul Haq.
Dr Bharath told the board that the recent decline reflected stronger political leadership, improved accountability, data-driven decision-making and better-quality vaccination campaigns. He said polio eradication is now a whole-of-government mission led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Ms Farooq said the virus is no longer widespread but has become concentrated in the country’s most difficult and insecure areas, particularly southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where thousands of children remain beyond the reach of vaccination teams because of security threats.
She said Pakistan had adopted a more targeted approach using smaller local vaccination teams, repeated visits to missed children, and closer integration of polio campaigns with routine immunisation, nutrition, maternal and child health, and water, sanitation and hygiene services. “The poliovirus footprint is narrowing, but it is now concentrated in the most difficult geographies,” she said.
Why it matters
The review is a checkpoint on Pakistan’s progress towards interrupting transmission and on the risk that failure in the remaining hotspots could undo years of gains. The IMB first recommended travel restrictions on Pakistan in November 2012; those restrictions took effect on 5 May 2014, requiring travellers to carry a polio vaccination card. Continued insecurity in parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been the main obstacle to reaching every child.
Pakistan’s programme also relies on the board’s assessment to sustain international support and funding for vaccination campaigns that reach millions of children each year.
What is still uncertain
Officials did not give the board a firm date for interrupting transmission, and the board’s final conclusions from the Geneva review were not detailed in the account. The three cases reported so far in 2026 and the concentration of the virus in insecure areas leave the timeline for eradication open.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a summary of published reporting, not independent reporting. Details are as carried by the cited source, which was reviewed on 27 July 2026.
- Dawn — "Pakistan tells global watchdog polio eradication is within reach, insecurity in KP remains biggest hurdle"27 July 2026 · Pakistan's presentation to the Independent Monitoring Board, falling case numbers, the delegation and the security obstacles in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
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