Shehbaz Sharif orders anti-polio strategy within a week
Officials will visit all four provinces as Pakistan has recorded nine polio cases this year, with most in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed the formulation of a coordinated anti-polio strategy within a week on Thursday, the state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
Sharif gave the instruction at a review meeting on polio eradication in Islamabad, and he told officials to draw up the plan in consultation with all four provinces.
He said eradicating polio is a major challenge, but the nation's determination and resolve are stronger than that challenge.
Sharif directed the federal health minister, the minister of state, the federal health secretary and members of the Polio Eradication Team to visit all four provinces immediately and meet the chief ministers and chief secretaries there.
The prime minister expressed concern over recent polio cases and called for intensified efforts and an improved strategy to combat the disease.
He also ordered authorities to improve routine immunization coverage, particularly in polio-affected and high-risk areas.
Sharif praised frontline polio workers and law enforcement agencies for their work in carrying out anti-polio campaigns across the country, and he noted better access in security-sensitive areas.
He said uninterrupted access for frontline workers, and their security during vaccination campaigns, remain the government's top priority.
The meeting was told that a new case was reported from Khyber district on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to nine this year.
Seven of the cases were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including three each in Khyber and Bannu districts and one in North Waziristan, and all three Khyber cases are linked to poliovirus originating from Afghanistan.
Two cases were reported in Sindh, one each in the Karachi East and Sujawal districts.
The meeting was told that cross-border movement from Afghanistan is currently one of the major factors contributing to the spread of polio in Pakistan.
No new case has been reported in Punjab since February 2025, Balochistan has reported no new cases in 2025 or 2026, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan are already polio-free, the meeting was further briefed.
Detection of poliovirus in environmental samples has also declined in Sindh this year, officials said.
All possible measures are being taken to improve the security of polio teams and ensure better access to the southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the meeting was informed.
Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only two countries where wild poliovirus has never been fully stopped, and the virus can cause permanent paralysis, mainly in young children.
Eradication efforts have relied on repeated vaccination campaigns across the country, which have at times been disrupted by insecurity in parts of the northwest.
