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KARACHI: Pakistan’s nationwide polio immunization campaign continued successfully for a third consecutive day on Wednesday, with more than 25.4 million children under the age of five vaccinated in the first two days, according to the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC).

The week-long campaign, launched earlier this week, aims to reach over 45 million children across all provinces and territories as part of Pakistan’s ongoing efforts to eradicate the paralytic disease. Pakistan remains one of only two countries in the world where wild poliovirus is still endemic, alongside Afghanistan.

According to the NEOC, 14.3 million children have been vaccinated in Punjab province, 5.02 million in Sindh, 3.77 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 1.45 million in Balochistan. In Islamabad, health workers reached over 203,000 children, while 187,000 were vaccinated in Gilgit-Baltistan and 481,000 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

“Integrated and sustained efforts are underway to ensure that every eligible child receives the life-saving vaccine,” the NEOC said in a statement. It added that teams are going door-to-door and setting up transit vaccination points nationwide.

The NEOC urged parents to welcome vaccination teams and ensure that all children under five receive the drops, warning that polio “is a dangerous disease that can cause lifelong paralysis.” It emphasized that the campaign’s success depends on active community participation and parental cooperation.

While Pakistan has made major gains since the 1990s when annual cases exceeded 20,000, reducing the toll to eight by 2018, vaccine hesitancy, fueled by misinformation and resistance from some religious hard-liners, continues to undermine efforts.

Pakistan recorded 74 cases in 2024, a sharp rise from six in 2023 and just one in 2021. This year, it has reported 29 polio cases so far, including 18 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, nine from Sindh and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated doses of the Oral Polio Vaccine for every child under five during each campaign, alongside timely completion of all routine immunizations.

Pakistan’s efforts to eliminate poliovirus have been hampered by parental refusals, widespread misinformation and repeated attacks on anti-polio workers by militant groups. In remote and volatile areas, vaccination teams often operate under police protection, though security personnel themselves have also been targeted and killed in attacks.

On Tuesday, a paramilitary Levies soldier deployed to protect a polio vaccination team was killed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan: Fifteen civilians were killed and dozens wounded in fresh clashes on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Afghan officials told AFP on Wednesday.

Clashes broke out overnight in the southern Afghan district of Spin Boldak, according to Ali Mohammad Haqmal, spokesman for the local information department, who said 15 civilians had been killed.

The toll was confirmed to AFP by Abdul Jan Barak, an official at the Spin Boldak district hospital, who said more than 80 women and children had been wounded.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid accused Pakistani forces of “once again” carrying out attacks “with light and heavy weapons” in Spin Boldak district.

Mujahid said in a statement that 12 civilians were killed and 100 others injured. The statement did not mention any casualties among security forces.

But it did say calm had returned to the area after Pakistani soldiers were killed and posts and weapons seized.

All businesses in the area are closed and many residents have fled, an AFP correspondent reported.

Pakistan did not immediately comment, but security sources said they had targeted Afghan positions from Kurram district, further north than Spin Boldak.

The renewed violence comes as tensions, fueled by security issues, flare between the two neighboring countries, with Islamabad accusing Afghanistan of harboring militant groups led by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP). Kabul denies this. 

Clashes first erupted on Saturday evening when Kabul launched an operation in at least five provinces along the border.

The Taliban government said it attacked Pakistani security forces in “retaliation for air strikes carried out by the Pakistani army on Kabul,” following unclaimed blasts in the Afghan capital on Thursday.

Islamabad vowed a forceful response on Sunday, and dozens of casualties were reported on both sides.