{"id":449223,"date":"2025-12-15T18:54:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/449223\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T18:54:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:54:18","slug":"pakistan-begins-last-anti-polio-vaccination-drive-of-2025-after-surge-in-new-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/449223\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan begins last anti-polio vaccination drive of 2025 after surge in new cases"},"content":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani authorities on Monday launched the final nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign<\/a> of the year, aiming to protect 45 million children after more than two dozen cases of the potentially paralyzing disease were reported, officials said.<\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organization, Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan remain the only two countries where polio has not been eradicated.<\/p>\n

Pakistan has reported 30 polio cases since January, down from 74 during the same period last year, according to a statement from the government-run Polio Eradication Initiative. <\/p>\n

The campaign is the country\u2019s fifth national vaccination drive this year. Pakistan regularly conducts such campaigns despite persistent security threats.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Mustafa Kamal urged parents to cooperate with vaccination teams. \u201cThis is not just about numbers. Each case threatens a child\u2019s future and the safety of our communities,\u201d Kamal said about the latest polio cases.<\/p>\n

According to the statement, more than 400,000 front-line health workers are going door-to-door across Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and in Islamabad, to ensure no child is missed.<\/p>\n

Militants have repeatedly targeted vaccination workers<\/a> and the police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming the campaigns are a Western plot to sterilize Muslim children. <\/p>\n

Authorities have deployed thousands of police officers to protect vaccination teams following intelligence reports warning of possible militant attacks.<\/p>\n

Since the 1990s, more than 200 polio workers and police officers assigned to guard them have been killed in such attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe December polio campaign is synchronized with Afghanistan, ensuring both countries boost immunity together to interrupt cross-border transmission,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

Officials said Pakistan has made significant progress in containing the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are closer than ever to achieving eradication, and this campaign represents a vital final push to stop the virus everywhere it still circulates,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ISLAMABAD — Pakistani authorities on Monday launched the final nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign of the year, aiming to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":449224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[206556,347,57,210,15006,50,206555,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-449223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-206556","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-general-news","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-immunizations","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-polio-and-post-polio-syndrome","15":"tag-world","16":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115725104800580978","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}