Pakistan will run a sub-national polio vaccination campaign from 2 to 8 November 2026 in 97 selected districts, targeting about 24 million children under the age of five. Frontline workers will go door to door giving two drops of oral polio vaccine to every eligible child, as part of the country's continuing effort to eradicate polio.

The Prime Minister's Focal Person for Polio Eradication, Ayesha Raza Farooq, urged parents on 1 November to make sure children under five receive the drops during the campaign. She said seven polio cases had been reported in Pakistan so far this year, with most originating in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal inaugurated the third sub-national campaign of 2026 at the National Emergency Operations Centre in Islamabad, with the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention among the partners present.

Where the campaign will run

The campaign plan covers 13 districts in Punjab, targeting 9.278 million children, and 20 districts in Sindh, targeting 6.883 million. Balochistan will cover 31 districts, where more than 2.2 million children are expected to receive drops from 8,888 mobile and stationary teams. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 27 districts in the plan, alongside three in Gilgit-Baltistan, two in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and the federal capital. Because this is a sub-national campaign, it does not cover every district in the country.

Islamabad's four-day drive

Islamabad's own drive runs from 2 to 5 November and aims to vaccinate 447,614 children across the federal capital. The district administration inaugurated it on 31 October at Golra Railway Station, with teams visiting households, schools and hospitals and special camps set up in public places. The health minister has set an aim of making Pakistan polio-free by June next year; that is a government target, not a guarantee, and it will depend on reaching children in every targeted district.