Zero-Dose Children: PMA Declares Pakistan’s Immunisation Gap a Public Health Emergency
The Pakistan Medical Association warns that more than 651,000 unvaccinated infants have left the country vulnerable to major outbreaks of preventable diseases.
A healthcare worker administers routine childhood vaccination during an immunisation campaign.
Zero-Dose Children have pushed Pakistan into a national public health emergency, the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) warned after new epidemiological data revealed that 651,000 infants have missed their first routine vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP1).
The PMA said the growing immunisation gap has weakened herd immunity and significantly increased the risk of large-scale outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases across the country.
PMA Secretary-General Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro described the situation as a systemic failure of Pakistan’s primary healthcare system, blaming years of governance failures, administrative negligence and corruption.
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He said the country’s healthcare framework had deteriorated because authorities failed to strengthen routine immunisation services and neglected preventive healthcare.
According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) data, 90 percent of all zero-dose children in the Eastern Mediterranean Region live in five countries: Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia.
The PMA noted that while Sudan, Yemen and Somalia continue to face armed conflict and state instability, Pakistan’s inclusion among the worst-performing countries stems primarily from governance failures rather than war.
Dr Shoro said it was unacceptable for a non-conflict country to account for 14 percent of the region’s zero-dose children, calling it a clear failure of public administration.
The association identified several factors behind the crisis, including weak management of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), politically motivated appointments, poor healthcare planning, inadequate outreach to remote communities and ineffective efforts to address vaccine hesitancy.
The PMA said decades of corruption, poor governance and a lack of political commitment had allowed the number of zero-dose children to reach alarming levels.
To address the crisis, the association called for an immediate audit of all provincial EPI and health department funds to improve transparency, eliminate corruption in procurement and hold officials accountable for administrative failures.
The PMA also urged federal and provincial governments to treat routine immunisation as a national security priority and launch targeted vaccination campaigns using GIS-based demographic mapping to identify and vaccinate unprotected children, especially in high-risk districts.
The association further recommended modernising vaccine storage and distribution systems, ensuring timely payments to frontline healthcare workers, improving their training and strengthening security measures for vaccination teams operating in vulnerable areas.
The PMA stressed that urgent action is essential to prevent avoidable child deaths and restore confidence in Pakistan’s immunisation programme.
