Polio outbreak reaches record high of 202 cases in Pakistan

October 04, 2014 15:38

Pakistan has recorded its highest number of polio cases for 14 years, with health officials blaming the rise on attacks on immunisation teams.The number of new cases so far in 2014 is 202, already exceeding the previous the high of 199 cases in 2001. Most of the infections are in the north-western tribal region where militants have targeted health teams.

Militants there accuse doctors of being spies and say the vaccinations are part of a Western plot to sterilise Muslims. Suspicions over the programmes worsened after the US was accused of using a fake vaccination programme during its tracking of Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.

Since December 2012, about 60 people, including health workers and police providing security to medical teams, have been killed by Taliban militants targeting polio teams.

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