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ISLAMABAD (AFP) – Pakistani police have killed at least three people this week as part of a campaign to eradicate the disease in this troubled country.
The latest victim, a polio worker, was killed Thursday morning in southwest Balochistan province, as a result of separate attacks targeting health workers in the northwestern part of the country earlier this week which resulted in the death of two police officers.
"The attack took place in a remote area and we received reports that a female polio worker was reportedly killed," AFP district police chief Attaullah Shah told AFP.
Security officials in Pakistan told AFP that the authorities had ordered the polio teams to remain "vigilant" in the face of the violence.
The attacks came days after more than 25,000 children were taken to hospitals in northwestern Pakistan after rumors of polio vaccine reactions.
Panic broke out as health workers conducted a three-day vaccination campaign in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Authorities said dozens of polio agents had been beaten or harbaded as a result of the crisis.
The current suspicion of poliomyelitis vaccine in Pakistan has recently been compounded by anti-vaccination videos on social media.
The opposition of Islamists to all forms of inoculation increased after the CIA organized a false vaccination campaign to find Al-Qaeda group leader Osama Bin Laden in the city. Pakistani garrison of Abbottabad. He was killed there by US forces in 2011.
"We have a communication problem, it's a problem of mistrust," said Mr. Baber Atta, who helps oversee the country's vaccination campaign.
Atta said at least 260,000 health workers were participating in the vaccination campaign and 150,000 policemen were escorting the teams.
However, Atta added that hundreds of thousands of children would probably not be vaccinated during the current campaign.
"There is a serious lack of trust between parents," he said.
Polio is endemic only in three countries of the world – Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria – although a relatively rare strain has also been detected in Papua New Guinea at the end of last year.
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