Security Concerns Hindering Polio Immunizations In Pakistan, WHO Official Says

“Some 240,000 children have missed U.N.-backed vaccinations against polio because of security concerns in Pakistan’s tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, a top official with the World Health Organization said Friday,” the Associated Press/Huffington Post reports. “Nima Saeed Abid, the acting WHO chief in Pakistan, said health workers have not been able to immunize children in the North and South Waziristan regions — Taliban strongholds — since July 2012,” the news agency writes. “Abid said there have so far been five polio cases reported this year,” and he “said that 15 health workers have been killed in the anti-polio campaign in Pakistan since July 2012,” according to the AP (3/29).

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