THE country has reported fewer than half as many cases of polio in 2025 than the previous year, a sign of progress in its eradication campaign even as vaccinators faced repeated militant attacks, according to a statement from the government-run Polio Eradication Initiative.
The announcement came two weeks after Pakistan launched its final nationwide polio vaccination campaign of the year, targeting 45 million children.
Anwarul Haq, who is the coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Centre for Polio Eradication, told The Associated Press that authorities reported 30 cases of the potentially paralysing disease in 2025, down from 74 a year earlier.
Pakistan and its neighbouring Afghanistan are the only two countries in which polio has not been eradicated, according to the World Health Organization.
Militants have repeatedly targeted vaccination workers and the police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming the campaigns are a Western plot to sterilise Muslim children.
Authorities deploy thousands of police officers during each vaccination drive following intelligence warnings of possible attacks.
Since the 1990s, more than 200 polio workers and police officers guarding them have been killed in such attacks, officials say. — AP
