ISLAMABAD: Rotary International has provided a $9.9 million grant to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Pakistan to support the vaccination of 27 million children against polio in high-risk districts, WHO said on Wednesday, reinforcing nationwide eradication efforts in one of the last two countries where the disease remains endemic.
The funding will support WHO’s operational role within the Pakistan-led Polio Eradication Initiative, which conducts multiple door-to-door and subnational immunization campaigns each year, reaching more than 45 million children across the country.
Polio eradication remains a critical public-health priority for Pakistan, which, along with Afghanistan, is among the only two countries worldwide where wild poliovirus type 1 continues to circulate. While Pakistan has made substantial progress over the past three decades, health officials warn that persistent transmission in high-risk areas continues to pose a global threat.
Since the launch of Pakistan’s eradication program in the mid-1990s, polio cases have fallen by 99.8 percent, from about 20,000 cases in 1994 to 31 cases reported in 2025, according to official data. Globally, cases have declined by 99.9 percent since 1988 under the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
