Punjab to Launch Anti-Polio Campaign from October 13 Amid Fresh Virus Concerns

Lahore — (By Staff Reporter Dr. Ansab Ali):
The Punjab government will launch a province-wide anti-polio campaign on October 13, aiming to vaccinate over 22.5 million children under the age of five. The campaign will run for seven days in Lahore and five days in all other districts, involving more than 200,000 frontline health workers.

A meeting of the Provincial Task Force on Polio Eradication, chaired at the Civil Secretariat, brought together Provincial Health Minister Khawaja Imran Nazir, Chief Secretary Punjab Zahid Akhtar Zaman, Chief Minister’s Focal Person on Polio Uzma Kardar, and representatives from international partner organizations. Divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners joined the session via video link.

The task force expressed serious concern over the presence of poliovirus in environmental samples collected from Lahore, prompting the decision to conduct a special vaccination drive in 122 union councils of the city in November. Security arrangements for vaccination teams in Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan, and Mianwali were also reviewed.

Health Minister Khawaja Imran Nazir underscored the urgency of immunizing every child to stop virus transmission, saying, “Despite remarkable progress, the continued presence of the virus remains a serious risk. Every missed child is a risk to all.”

Chief Secretary Zahid Akhtar Zaman instructed officials to ensure vaccination coverage in flood-affected areas and to deploy mobile teams at inter-provincial borders and transit points to immunize children on the move. He stressed that improved coordination and closing operational gaps were essential to achieving complete eradication of the poliovirus in Punjab.

Adeel Tasawur, head of the Punjab Polio Eradication Program, provided a detailed briefing, confirming the campaign’s scale and workforce, and reaffirming the province’s commitment to eliminating the virus once and for all.