Pak resumes polio campaign under tight security

January 05, 2013 02:01

AFP reports: Pakistan government officials today said that they were providing paramilitary and police support to polio vaccinations which are being resumed discreetly in the northwest after a series of attacks on medical workers.

UN agencies suspended work on a nationwide campaign to inoculate children against the highly-infectious disease after nine health workers were murdered in a string of attacks in the northwest and Karachi in December.

Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio is endemic, but efforts to stamp out the disease have been hampered by resistance from the Taliban, who have banned vaccination teams from some areas.

Another factor foiling the efforts is distrust rumours about the vaccine being a plot to sterilise Muslims have long dogged efforts to tackle the disease in Pakistan.

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