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Pakistan The number of reported polio cases will fall by half by 2025 compared with the previous year, according to a statement from the government-run Polio Eradication Initiative, a sign of progress in the eradication campaign even as vaccine recipients face repeated attacks by militants.
Two weeks ago, Pakistan launched its final nationwide polio vaccination campaign of the year, targeting 45 million children.
Anwarul Haq, coordinator of the National Emergency Operations Center for Polio Eradication, told The Associated Press that authorities will report 30 cases of the potentially paralyzing disease in 2025, down from 74 cases a year ago.
pakistan and neighboring countries Afghanistan These are the only two countries that have not yet eradicated polio, according to the World Health Organization World Health Organization.
The latest data from Pakistan underscore the momentum and lingering risks of the decades-long campaign. While vaccination coverage has improved and reported cases have fallen sharply, health officials say continued transmission in a handful of hard-to-reach areas means the country remains vulnerable to setbacks unless immunization efforts continue.
Haq said Pakistan will launch its first anti-polio campaign of the new year in the first week of February. He said no new infections had been reported anywhere in the country since September, which he attributed to the vaccination campaign carried out during the year.
Haq said more than 98 per cent of the target population had been vaccinated during the recent vaccination drive. Vaccination efforts continue to face challenges during the vaccination drive, especially in parts of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where health workers face resistance and safety restrictions.
Militants have repeatedly targeted vaccination workers and the police responsible for protecting them, falsely claiming the campaigns were a Western sterilization plot Muslim children.
Authorities deploy thousands of police officers at each vaccination campaign after receiving intelligence warnings of possible attacks.
Officials say more than 200 polio workers and the police officers guarding them have been killed in such attacks since the 1990s.