Project profile — Polio Plus for Pakistan

The ultimate outcome of this initiative is polio eradication in Pakistan. The expected outcomes are to reduce the number of children missed during the national immunization days and to decrease vulnerability of children to polio from malnutrition and illness in endemic and targeted project areas.

Results achieved at the end of the project (March 2017): The Polio Plus initiative added to polio vaccination efforts in Pakistan by contributing to a reduced vaccine refusal rate, a reduction in missed children to below 1% in very high risk districts, and a significant drop in polio cases from 306 in 2014 to 20 by the end of 2016. This has been done through a strengthened cross-sector approach to improve availability of and access to integrated priority services including nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene, maternal, neonatal, and child health, and routine immunization in polio high-risk areas. The project conducted 2,202 Health Camps in 21 high-risk districts across Pakistan reaching a total of 546,756 women and children with health services resulting in the routine immunization of 108,205 previously missed children (55,018 girls and 53,187 boys) and the vaccination of 9,030 children under 5 years who had never received an Oral Polio Vaccine.