Polio is once again spreading in Pakistan, where officials say more than 1 million children missed their vaccination doses last month, underscoring the challenges they face in eradicating one of the world’s most intractable diseases.

Polio has started to resurface in Pakistan as more than one million children failed to receive their vaccinations last month. Since the beginning of the year, the country has reported 39 new polio cases,

Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO): world news

Pakistan is launching a nationwide polio vaccination campaign on 28 October to vaccinate more than 45 million children under the age of five against paralytic polio. Prior to the latest surge in infections, Pakistan - and its population of more than 240 million - was on the verge of eradicating the disease.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the world’s last two countries where polio remains endemic. “This should be a wake-up call for all parents and communities,” Ayesha Raza Farooq,