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Polio workers across Pakistan must remain alert Thursday after multiple attacks against vaccination teams this week, at least three people were killed during an operation to eradicate the disease in this restless country.
The latest victim, a polio worker, was shot dead in Baluchistan province on Thursday morning as a result of targeted attacks on health workers in the north-west of the country earlier this week. two dead.
"The attack took place in a remote area and we received reports that a female polio worker was killed," AFP Attaullah Shah, a district police chief, told AFP. stating that a second health worker had also been seriously injured.
The injured worker was then taken to a nearby clinic before being sent to Quetta Hospital, the provincial capital, for further treatment.
The incident was not claimed immediately, but activists – including Pakistani Taliban – have already attacked polio workers, killing more than 100 people since December 2012.
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 spread that some would have had reactions to the polio vaccine.
Panic broke out as health workers conducted a three-day vaccination campaign in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Authorities said dozens of polio workers were beaten or harassed.
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.
Some Taliban and ultra-conservative religious leaders have also spread rumors that the vaccines would contain ingredients banned by Islam, such as pork derivatives, or could cause infertility in the course of life. a Western plot to reduce the population.
"We have a communication problem, it's a problem of mistrust," said Babar Atta, who helps oversee the country's vaccination campaign.
According to Atta, at least 260,000 health workers are involved in the campaign and around 150,000 police escort the teams.
However, Atta added that hundreds of thousands of children may not be vaccinated.
"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.
Poliomyelitis is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system and can cause complete paralysis within hours. It mainly affects children under five years old.
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