Pakistan's second nationwide polio vaccination campaign of 2026 fell short of its target, reaching approximately 44.7 million of the 45 million children under five it aimed to vaccinate, leaving around 300,000 unimmunised, according to the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC). Health experts noted this was nonetheless an improvement on previous drives, which typically missed between 800,000 and one million children, with the shortfall attributed largely to families travelling and a small number of refusals. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic, and officials warned that the approaching high-transmission season — when warmer temperatures between May and September allow the virus to spread more readily — makes continued immunisation efforts critical; Pakistan has already recorded 31 polio cases in 2025 and one confirmed case in 2026.