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The Pakistani authorities have suspended the anti-polio campaign "indefinitely" throughout the country, while violent attacks against polio workers have multiplied.
A national polio campaign was launched in all districts of the country on 22 April.
South Asia's National Center for Polio Emergency Operations (EOC) on Friday urged all provinces to end the campaign to protect some 270,000 polio field staff members from polio. attacks, announced Pakistan Dawn The newspaper reported Saturday.
On Thursday, gunmen opened fire on female health workers in Shaman, a town in the south-west of the country, killing one person and injuring one.
In separate attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, badailants killed two police officers protecting a polio vaccination team in the north-west of the country.
"After the incident in Peshawar, the uncertain and threatening situation for front-line workers of polio has appeared and we must save the program from further major damage", Dawn The paper quotes a statement issued by the WCC, adding that the partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (PIPI) have supported this initiative.
"Therefore, no other immunization or catch-up activity will be conducted in this region," said the NEC.
The violence coincided with rumors that children had reported adverse reactions to the polio vaccine.
Read more: WHO launches global effort to completely eradicate polio
Violence and mistrust
Polio is endemic only in three countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. Last year, a relatively rare strain was also detected in Papua New Guinea.
Poliomyelitis is a highly infectious viral disease that mainly affects children under five. It can cause permanent paralysis and death, but can be prevented by vaccination. The virus is spread through contaminated food and water.
Polio campaigns have faced immense problems in Pakistan, radical Islamists speaking to health teams and people wary of motivation in some parts of the country.
Read more: Why did the German foundation Heinrich Böll leave Pakistan?
Islamists claim that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has organized a false vaccination campaign to find Osama bin Laden in the city of Abbottabad, where US forces then killed the leader of al-Qaeda. in 2011.
In July 2012, the Pakistani authorities had to postpone a campaign against polio in Waziristan, north-west of the country, after the ban on immunizations by Taliban leaders. the CIA in the hunt for bin Laden.
In the same year, the United Nations suspended its polio eradication campaign in Pakistan after the Taliban killed two of their workers in the northwestern town of Charsadda.
At least 100 people have been killed in attacks on vaccination teams since 2012.
Read more: In Pakistan, polio cases have been recorded in Pakistan
False news
Pakistan's latest polio campaign has also been hampered by social media reports and videos claiming that many children have been killed by the polio vaccine. As a result, thousands of parents have refused to allow their children's inoculation against polio.
Read more: Pakistan: "No detention policy for parents refusing polio vaccines"
Health officials said that a "planned plot" was responsible for the panic. According to them, misinformation fueled existing mistrust of anti-polio campaigns, resulting in "a three-fold increase in parents' refusal to vaccinate their children" in the past two years.
Authorities say that about 700,000 children have missed polio vaccines in Punjab province alone, putting the lives of too many children at risk of contracting the disease.
"Here people have little knowledge, so if they see an allegedly American or foreign teacher [on social media] who are against the vaccine, they are easily convinced, "said AFP Rana Safdar of the National Institute of Health of Pakistan.
"Now there is a setback, we need to regain momentum," he added.
Sherry Rehman, opposition leader in the Pakistani Senate (upper house of Parliament), said in a Twitter message that "the polio vaccine is safe and effective … The country's parents should NOT stay The vaccine is safe. "
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