Pakistan, WHO have protected 160 million children and 130 million mothers with life-saving vaccines over 5 decades

Country: Pakistan

Sources: Government of Pakistan, World Health Organization

Please refer to the attached file.

Original article on WHO Pakistan website

Pakistan ranks among the top five countries worldwide for absolute reductions in child deaths thanks to vaccination. It has averted 2.6 million child deaths from preventable diseases, eradicated smallpox, reduced paralytic polio cases by 99.8% and ensured neonatal tetanus-free areas for 80% of the country’s population.

22 April 2026, Islamabad, Pakistan – Over the last five decades, since the founding of Pakistan’s Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in 1978, Pakistan has protected over 160 million children and 130 million mothers with life-saving vaccines in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners. Thanks to medical science, Pakistan eradicated smallpox in 1976 and paved the way for the launch of an immunization programme that has ever since averted 2.6 million child deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases, proving that, for every generation, vaccines work and save lives.

Globally, vaccines have saved 154 million lives since 1974, and Pakistan ranks among the top 5 countries worldwide for absolute reductions in child deaths as a result of vaccination.

Since 1994, powered by the medical science behind vaccines, Pakistan has reduced paralytic polio cases by 99.8% – from an estimated 20,000 cases to 31 in 2025.

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