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Pakistan urged Facebook to abolish the social networking site for polio-damaging content on Friday, saying it undermined polio eradication efforts and endangered the lives of vaccinators.
In recent months, the country's social media have been inundated with fake reports and videos, which garnered thousands of views and shared last week, claiming that many children have been killed by the polio vaccine.
Thousands of parents refused to allow their children's inoculation.
See: Poliomyelitis vaccine – what you need to know
"Parents' refusals due to Facebook propaganda about the vaccine are becoming a major obstacle to the complete eradication of the virus," said Babar Bin Atta, head of the Prime Minister's polio eradication program.
Atta asked "Facebook officials to block and / or manage the spread of such anti-vaccination propaganda from their platforms operating from Pakistan."
At least three people were killed in the last national polio campaign in April.
The violence coincided with an outbreak of hysteria in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa towns after rumors of children suffering from polio vaccine-related adverse events caused panic and tens of thousands of people rushed to the streets. hospitals.
Last week, about 10,000 refusals of vaccination were reported every day in Islamabad, compared to 200 to 300 in the previous campaign, according to figures from the national polio program.
Nearly 100 people have been killed in assaults on vaccination teams since 2012.
Despite the opposition, activists have reported progress with tens of millions of vaccinated children nationwide and a 96 percent decline in reported polio cases since 2014.
In addition to Pakistan, poliomyelitis is endemic in two other countries of the world: Afghanistan and Nigeria, although a relatively rare strain was also detected in Papua New Guinea last year.
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