What happened
The Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative (PEI) launched the first nationwide polio vaccination campaign of 2026 on Monday 2 February, aiming to inoculate 45 million children under the age of five, The Express Tribune reported the same day. The week-long drive runs from 2 to 8 February across 159 districts.
The campaign was inaugurated at the CDA Rawal Town Dispensary in Islamabad by Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s focal person for polio eradication. She was joined by Canadian High Commissioner Tarik Ali Khan, the World Health Organisation’s representative in Pakistan, Dr Luo Dapeng, and the UNICEF representative in Pakistan, Pernille Ironside, along with district government officials.
What is being delivered
The campaign targets every child under five with two drops of oral polio vaccine. The PEI said more than 400,000 frontline health workers are mobilised nationwide for each round, conducting house-to-house visits.
According to the initiative, polio cases in Pakistan have fallen by 99.8 per cent since eradication campaigns began in 1994, from an estimated 20,000 cases a year to 31 cases reported for 2025. Government and partner representatives said the vaccine is WHO-prequalified and has been used in more than 190 countries.
Why it matters
Farooq framed the February round as a decisive test in the endgame of eradication. “At this stage, every campaign and every child counts. Every child reached with the vaccine strengthens their protection and helps stop the virus from spreading further,” she said, urging parents, community leaders, educators and the media to keep supporting vaccination.
The launch also served as a public show of coordination between the federal government, international donors and UN agencies, whose staff joined vaccinators at the health facility and later at the Islamabad Model School for Girls Rawal Town G-5 to observe the administration of drops and answer pupils’ questions about vaccination.
What is still uncertain
The PEI did not say at the launch how many children were covered on day one, and the outcome of the round will not be known until coverage is assessed after 8 February. Pakistan’s programme has historically grappled with missed children in security-affected districts and vaccine hesitancy, and the 2026 target of interrupting transmission depends on sustaining coverage in every subsequent round. This campaign sits alongside routine immunisation efforts, such as the WHO and Gavi-supported strengthening of Pakistan’s immunisation logistics.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a summary of published reporting, not eyewitness coverage. Sources were reviewed on 2 February 2026.
- The Express Tribune — "Pakistan launches first polio eradication drive of 2026"Published 2 February 2026 · Primary report: confirms the PEI launch, the 45 million-child target, the 2–8 February window across 159 districts, the Islamabad inauguration and attendees, the 99.8 per cent reduction since 1994, the 31 cases reported for 2025, the 400,000-plus frontline workers, and Ayesha Raza Farooq's quotation.
- ABC News (Pakistan) — "Pakistan launches first polio eradication drive of 2026"Accessed 2 February 2026 · Syndicated full text of the same Express Tribune report, used to verify the quoted figures and the Reuters-supplied campaign photograph.
