ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Japan has given Pakistan a $4.3 million grant to buy more than 28 million doses of oral polio vaccine for the country’s 2027 vaccination campaigns, the Japanese embassy and Unicef said.
The money goes to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Initiative, which will use it to procure and deliver vaccine for next year’s drives. Japan’s ambassador, Akamatsu Shuichi, said the grant was larger than last year’s.
“Since 1996, Japan has consistently supported Pakistan’s polio eradication efforts, working closely with Unicef and other partners,” he said. “Japan fully supports Pakistan’s determination to achieve the goal of interrupting poliovirus transmission by the end of 2027.”
Japan has put more than $248 million in grants and loans into polio work in Pakistan through Unicef since 1996, according to the announcement.
Ayesha Raza Farooq, the prime minister’s focal person on polio eradication, said the grant came at a critical time. “Every dose of vaccine supported through Japan’s contribution brings us closer to a polio-free Pakistan,” she said.
Nine cases this year
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where wild poliovirus is still spreading. Pakistan’s cases fell from 74 in 2024 to 31 in 2025, and the National Emergency Operations Centre has confirmed nine so far in 2026, seven of them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two in Sindh. Insecurity and poor access in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa make it hard to reach every child, according to the announcement.
Under its National Emergency Action Plan for 2026–27, the government aims to stop transmission by the end of 2027. Each national drive targets more than 45 million children under five and relies on more than 400,000 frontline health workers.
Those workers and the police who guard them remain targets. Earlier this month gunmen abducted four polio workers in Tank, and terrorists killed two policemen on polio duty in Mohmand.
Across the border, the World Health Organization’s polio emergency committee said on Friday that Afghanistan has not run door-to-door vaccination since October 2024, and called for people of all ages to be vaccinated at border crossings.
“Japan has been a steadfast partner in Pakistan’s efforts to end polio, and this contribution will help sustain the high-quality vaccination campaigns needed to interrupt transmission,” said Pernille Ironside, Unicef’s representative in Pakistan.
Yusuke Shinozaki, who heads the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s Pakistan office, praised the frontline workers who “continue to serve communities under challenging circumstances.” “Let us continue working together until the day when no child suffers from polio,” he said.
