Peshawar polio campaign from today: 1.11 million children in 48 union councils over six days

A six-day polio booster campaign starts in Peshawar today, Monday 26 October, aiming to vaccinate 1,111,107 children aged four months to ten years in 48 high-risk union councils, the district administration said, ARY News reported.

Teams will vaccinate children at schools, health facilities and community vaccination points. Children aged 5 to 10 in the targeted union councils will also get oral polio drops along with the booster dose.

Peshawar polio campaign: the details

Why Peshawar, and why now

The campaign targets areas where poliovirus has turned up in environmental (sewage) samples, ARY said. Recent cases have been reported in neighbouring Khyber district and elsewhere in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Pakistan recorded its seventh case of 2026 in Karachi this month, and five of the first six were in KP, as we reported in the Karachi case story.

What parents should do

• Keep your child at home or nearby when teams visit, or take them to the nearest school or health facility point.
• Give the booster even if your child had drops before. Every extra dose builds protection; extra doses are safe.
• Check the finger mark after vaccination and ask the team to come back if your child was missed.
• Children under four months are not in this round; follow their routine immunisation card.

Deputy Commissioner Peshawar Afaq Wazir asked parents to get their children vaccinated and urged civil society, doctors and religious scholars to support the teams. Security has been arranged for the vaccinators, the district said.

Travelling abroad?

Pakistan is still under WHO polio travel rules, so many travellers leaving the country need proof of polio vaccination. See what flyers need now.