PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will launch a special polio vaccination campaign in 78 union councils of Peshawar and Khyber districts from October 26 to 31 following the detection of a polio case in a child from Khyber, with children aged five to 10 set to receive both injectable polio vaccines and oral polio drops.
The campaign will cover 48 union councils in Peshawar and 30 in Khyber, with health authorities setting a target of reaching 189,000 children.
A total of 2,448 vaccination teams have been formed for the drive, and schools will be among the locations targeted, according to officials of the provincial polio eradication programme, according to the officials.
They said that the targeted drive will be conducted alongside the routine anti-polio campaign across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which will cover children aged four months to five years. A further targeted campaign is planned for southern parts of the province in December, officials said.
The special campaign follows the detection of wild poliovirus in a child from Khyber district who lives in Peshawar and developed facial paralysis.
The case has prompted health authorities to step up vaccination efforts in the Peshawar-Khyber area, where the virus continues to pose a risk.
According to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative, the National Emergency Operations Centre confirmed a polio case from Khyber district on October 5.
The child was identified in the programme’s announcement as a seven-year-old boy from Ghundi-A union council in Jamrud tehsil. The initiative said additional vaccination activities, including oral and injectable vaccines for older children, were being planned in response to the case.
School-based vaccination and routine campaign
Schools will be among the key vaccination sites during the October drive, alongside health facilities and outreach locations. The use of schools is intended to help teams reach eligible children who might otherwise be missed during household vaccination activities.
The booster campaign in Peshawar and Khyber would use a needle-free jet injector to administer fractional doses of the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) to eligible children. The vaccination would take place at Expanded Programme on Immunisation centres, outreach sites and schools.
Health authorities have repeatedly urged parents to ensure that children receive the recommended vaccine doses during every campaign and complete their routine immunisation schedules.
The province is also planning another targeted campaign in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in December, where polio transmission has persisted and security-related access constraints have made it difficult for vaccination teams to reach every child consistently.
Pakistan reports seven polio cases this year
Pakistan has reported seven cases of wild poliovirus so far in 2026, including five in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Sindh, according to the National Emergency Operations Centre.
The latest case was confirmed in a six-month-old boy from Jamali Colony in Karachi East, the national polio programme announced on October 19. It was Karachi’s first reported case since December 2024.
Four of the five cases reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been detected in southern parts of the province, according to the polio programme. The fifth was reported from Khyber district, in the Peshawar-Khyber transmission area.
The first case of 2026 was confirmed in a four-year-old child from Bello union council in Sujawal district, Sindh. Two further cases were subsequently reported from Bannu and North Waziristan, followed by additional cases in Bannu.
Karachi case highlights continuing risk
The latest case in Karachi involved a six-month-old boy from Union Council Jamali Colony in Karachi East. The infection was identified through the country’s polio surveillance network and confirmed by the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad.
The national polio programme said a case investigation had been launched and that officials were assessing additional vaccination activities and measures to strengthen routine immunisation. Although the number of reported cases has declined compared with previous years, continued detection of the virus shows that transmission has not been interrupted.
Pakistan reported 31 polio cases in 2025, down from 74 in 2024. The programme says repeated vaccination remains essential because polio has no cure and can cause permanent paralysis, but it is preventable through vaccination.
A nationwide campaign is scheduled for November 2 to 8, when nearly 24 million children under five are expected to receive oral polio vaccine in 97 districts, including all districts of Karachi.
The September subnational campaign reached more than 29.3 million children, according to the polio eradication programme.
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