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 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.

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,

The rise in polio cases has widened an existing immunity gap that started during the COVID-19 pandemic. Polio, a highly infectious disease that mainly affects children under five, attacks the nervous system and can cause paralysis and death.

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

International: In ten months of the year, Pakistan has reported 39 cases of poliovirus, of which 20 were reported from Bal-o-c-h-istan, 12 from Sindh, five from Khyber Pakhtun-khwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD: A nationwide polio vaccination drive is set to commence on October 25, aiming to immunize over 4.5 million children across Pakistan, ARY News

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,