Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday launched the last anti-polio campaign of the year to ensure the complete eradication of polio from the country amidst an uptick in cases.

The last anti-polio campaign of 2024 is set to begin tomorrow across 143 districts in the country, focusing on addressing the alarming rise in polio cases and ensuring maximum immunisation coverage, the government announced earlier.

Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic, with the disease mostly affecting children under five, and sometimes causing lifelong paralysis.

Despite global efforts to eradicate the virus, challenges such as security issues, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation have slowed progress.

Speaking at the launch ceremony of the anti-polio drive in Islamabad today, PM Shehbaz said, “We will win this war (against polio) despite the difficulties faced in the past, polio cases increased and approximately 60 cases in Pakistan have come forward which is a great challenge and matter of great concern.”

The prime minister personally administered polio drops to children at the ceremony.

PM Shehbaz also appealed to parents across the country, saying, “I would like to respectfully request the parents to help us in this campaign and by giving polio drops to their children to safeguard their future.”

“I would like to acknowledge with a deep sense of gratitude the efforts of our international partners, Bill Gates Foundation, World Health Organisation and the Government of Saudi Arabia,” the prime minister added.

The development comes as the tally of polio cases nationwide rose to 63. The virus has been detected in eight more districts, bringing the affected districts to 83 this year. The virus has also reached the previously uninfected district of Charsada in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication Ayesha Raza Farooq, in a pre-recorded message, said the “last anti-polio campaign of the year 2024 is being launched from December 16.”

An accompanying statement from the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) said that the campaign would continue “in 143 specific districts of the country from December 16 to 22.”

The statement added that more than 44 million children will be vaccinated against polio in this campaign.

“As a mother, I appeal to you to open your doors to polio workers,” Farooq said in her statement, adding that the polio vaccine is completely safe, effective, and provided free of charge.

She said that for immunisation to protect against polio and other deadly diseases, it was essential to complete the course of vaccinations.

She also paid tribute to the frontline polio workers serving in difficult conditions, adding, “our frontline workers are the real heroes in the ongoing struggle against polio.”

Of the 63 cases reported so far this year, 26 were from Balochistan, 18 from KP, 17 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

Poliovirus spreads in the warm season and becomes less active in the cold season. The period from May to September is called high transmission season for the virus.

This is the fourth nationwide polio vaccination campaign to be conducted this year with the preceding one being inaugurated by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on October 25.

The campaign was scheduled for Oct 28 to Nov 3 and aimed to vaccinate a total of 45.4 million under-five children.

There have been district-specific campaigns as well in the preceding months.