[ 2012-12-19 ]

Pakistan is considered a key battleground in the global fight against polio

Polio workers attacked in Pakistan



A Pakistani health worker has been shot and
injured in Peshawar, the latest in a spate of
attacks against a polio vaccination drive in the
country.

On Tuesday, a UN-backed programme to eradicate the
disease was suspended in Karachi after four female
health workers were shot dead in the city.

No group has said it carried out the shootings,
but the Taliban have issued threats against the
polio drive.

Pakistan is one of just three countries where the
disease is still endemic.

In Wednesday's attack, gunmen opened fire on a
team of four men administering polio vaccinations
in Peshawar, critically injuring one, doctors told
Reuters news agency.

It came a day after a female worker died after an
attack in the north-western city.

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday
condemned the attacks and praised the work of the
polio vaccination teams, calling on regional
authorities to guarantee their safety.

Wednesday is the final day of a three-day
nationwide anti-polio drive - during which an
estimated 5.2 million polio drops were to be
administered.

There has been opposition to such immunisation
drives in parts of Pakistan, particularly after a
fake CIA hepatitis vaccination campaign helped to
locate Osama Bin Laden in 2011.

Militants have kidnapped and killed foreign NGO
workers in the past in an attempt to halt the
immunisation drives, which they say are part of
efforts to spy on them.

Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only other
countries where polio is still endemic.

Pakistan is considered the key battleground in the
global fight against the disease, which attacks
the nervous system and can cause permanent
paralysis within hours of infection.

Almost 200 children were paralysed in the country
in 2011 - the worst figures in 15 years.

Earlier this year, the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative warned that tackling the disease had
entered "emergency mode" after "explosive"
outbreaks in countries previously free of polio.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said polio was
at a tipping point, with experts fearing it could
"come back with a vengeance" after large outbreaks
in Africa and Tajikistan and China's first
recorded cases for more than a decade.

Declaring polio a national emergency, the
Pakistani government is targeting 33 million
children for vaccination with some 88,000 health
workers delivering vaccination drops.

Source - BBC

... go Back