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Islamabad, Pakistan – Unidentified gunmen killed at least one polio vaccinator in southwest Pakistan's Chaman region, government officials said, bringing the number of victims to three at least once this year .
Gunmen opened fire on a team of immunization workers in the remote village of Sultan Zai, about 100 km northwest of Quetta, the provincial capital, said Sami Agha, a local government official.
"The body of the policeman killed and another injured person was transferred to the hospital," said Agha in a statement.
Security forces have launched a search operation in the region and the polio vaccination campaign in the vicinity of Sultan Zai has been temporarily suspended, the statement said.
Poliomyelitis, a highly contagious and debilitating virus that targets the nervous system of children, has been eliminated worldwide but remains endemic in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.
Immunization campaigns in Pakistan have always been targeted by misinformation and violent attacks against polio vaccinators and the police officers who guard them.
Thursday's attack came after two policemen guarding vaccinators were killed in separate incidents in the northern districts of Bannu and Buner earlier in the week.
The violence this week brings to at least 95 the number of victims of attacks targeting polio vaccination teams in the country of Southeast Asia since 2012, according to a report from Al Jazeera. .
False information and rumors
Last year, out of 33 polio cases worldwide reported by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, 12 were reported in Pakistan. The remaining 21 cases were reported in neighboring Afghanistan.
Sultan Zai, where took place Thursday's attack, is located on the border between the two countries.
According to data from the World Health Organization, at least six polio cases have been reported this year in Pakistan.
This represents a significant reduction from the 306 cases reported in 2014, but the virus remains a significant threat to unvaccinated individuals as environmental samples throughout the country regularly show signs of contamination.
Polio immunization campaigns in Pakistan have often been misinformed, with parents worried about rumors that vaccines would sterilize their children or otherwise hurt them.
On Monday, an angry mob burned a government health center in Peshawar district, in the north of the country, after rumors that children receiving polio vaccine had begun to fall ill.
Hundreds of children were taken to Peshawar hospitals as hysteria seized relatives in the area, local newspaper Dawn reported.
The Pakistani authorities have stated that a certain degree of resistance is expected in the targeted communities, with around 400,000 children missed because of their parents' refusal during each vaccination campaign cycle. According to government data, about 39.4 million children are targeted for each vaccination cycle.
"We were expecting [refusals]but we did not know that people would panic and that something like this would happen too, "Babar bin Atta, the Pakistani PM's contact person for polio eradication, told Al Jazeera.
"We have to run very aggressive perception management campaigns [to combat misinformation]," he said.
"We had planned for the next polio campaign to take place in late June, which gives us some time to work on it."
Atta said at least 262,000 polio vaccinators and 151,000 security personnel were participating in the polio vaccination campaign this week across the country, which was continued.
Asad Hashim is the digital correspondent of Al Jazeera in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim.
Saadullah Akhtar has given additional information of Quetta.
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