Polio in Pakistan

Pakistan is one of the two remaining countries^[1][2] in the world where poliomyelitis (polio) is still categorized as an endemic viral infection,^[3] the other one being Afghanistan.^[1] While it has yet to fully eradicate polio, there has been a major downwards trend in the number of reported cases per year; the total count of wild poliovirus cases in Pakistan in 2019 was down to 147,^[4] compared to 84 in 2020, 1 in 2021, 20 in 2022,^[5] 6 in 2023^[6] and 41 as of October 2024.^[7]

Though the polio immunization campaign in the country started in 1974,^[8] the efforts for eradication officially started in 1994.^[9] The infection remains endemic despite over 100 rounds of vaccination being carried out in the past decade.^[10] Pakistan had the world's highest number of polio cases in 2014.^{[11][12][13][14]}