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| Gunmen kill polio workers in Pakistan | Gunmen kill polio workers in Pakistan |
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| Gunmen have killed three female Pakistani polio workers and their driver in the most deadly attack on health workers in two years. | Gunmen have killed three female Pakistani polio workers and their driver in the most deadly attack on health workers in two years. |
| Teams in Pakistan working to immunise children against the disease are often targeted by Taliban militants, who say the campaign is a cover for western spies, or accuse workers of distributing vaccines designed to sterilise children. | |
| The women were attacked on their way to meet a police escort on Wednesday, said police official Asad Raza in the south-western city of Quetta. “Two men on a motorcycle intercepted the van and shot the occupants using a handgun,” he said. | |
| Polio cases this year stand at a 15-year high of 265 in Pakistan. The disease, which can kill or paralyse a child within hours of infection, has been eradicated everywhere else except for Nigeria and Afghanistan. | Polio cases this year stand at a 15-year high of 265 in Pakistan. The disease, which can kill or paralyse a child within hours of infection, has been eradicated everywhere else except for Nigeria and Afghanistan. |
| One reason for the spike in Pakistan is a military campaign in North Waziristan, a rugged region on the Afghan border, that forced a large number of unvaccinated children to flee their homes and move around the country in June. | One reason for the spike in Pakistan is a military campaign in North Waziristan, a rugged region on the Afghan border, that forced a large number of unvaccinated children to flee their homes and move around the country in June. |
| An international monitoring body also blamed Pakistan’s government in a report last month. Vaccinators rarely get paid their government stipends, while police protection teams often turn up late, if at all. | An international monitoring body also blamed Pakistan’s government in a report last month. Vaccinators rarely get paid their government stipends, while police protection teams often turn up late, if at all. |
| The complacency of Pakistan’s government was “disastrous”, the report said, warning that the country risked re-infecting the rest of the world. Pakistan has already exported the virus to Syria, China, Israel and Egypt. | The complacency of Pakistan’s government was “disastrous”, the report said, warning that the country risked re-infecting the rest of the world. Pakistan has already exported the virus to Syria, China, Israel and Egypt. |