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ISLAMABAD – Pakistani health officials have announced that the country has suspended its national polio campaign after the death of a health worker and two policemen escorting vaccination teams, killed in separate attacks in the country in less than a week.
Pakistan is one of the three countries in the world where polio is still endemic. The other two are Afghanistan and Nigeria.
But militant threats and deep-seated superstition have pushed many parents to refuse to vaccinate their children.
Officials said unidentified gunmen targeted polio workers and police to protect them in three separate attacks this week in the highly rural areas of western Afghanistan. before fleeing.
Saturday's decision to end the campaign against the debilitating disease comes after two new cases of polio were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the north-west of the country.
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