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Bosonic

(3,746 posts)
Tue May 28, 2013, 02:09 PM May 2013

Pakistan polio vaccination suspended after killing

Source: AP

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani authorities suspended a polio vaccination program Tuesday after gunmen shot dead a female polio worker and wounded another, officials said, in a blow to the U.N.-backed campaign aimed at eradicating the crippling disease from this violence-torn country.

Such attacks have made it harder for Pakistan to join the vast majority of nations declared polio-free.

The two women were attacked Tuesday in Kaggawala village on the outskirts of the main northwest city of Peshawar, police officer Mushtaq Khan said.

Senior police official Shafiullah Khan said two attackers on foot fired a pistol at the workers. He said police have started a search operation.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/gunmen-kill-female-polio-worker-nw-pakistan

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Pakistan polio vaccination suspended after killing (Original Post) Bosonic May 2013 OP
How sad for the children of Pakistan n/t cosmicone May 2013 #1
Again? Harmony Blue May 2013 #2
too bad, the U.S. is partially responsible cali May 2013 #3
NO NO NO... SkyDaddy7 May 2013 #9
Ignorance and guns are a deadly combination. hunter May 2013 #4
The U.S. is majorly at fault here cali May 2013 #5
Thanks for posting that. hunter May 2013 #6
The root cause appears to be Muslim clerics' assertions that polio vaccines cause sterility. SunSeeker May 2013 #7
Good thinking guys, Turbineguy May 2013 #8

SkyDaddy7

(6,045 posts)
9. NO NO NO...
Wed May 29, 2013, 06:45 AM
May 2013

It is not "both wrong and repulsive" to say that there is little hope for that part of the world (Middle East & most other Islamic nations)...These people are literally centuries behind the modern world & if it were not for the advancements of the Western world these people would not have electricity, cars , computers, etc., The sad part is women & children are the ones who suffer abuses & neglect because men do no wrong & literally OWN all the women!

Yes, it is sad that these people are so ignorant & uneducated that they think vaccination programs are some CIA plot to hurt or kill them. Yes, I know about the CIA operation to get OBL used a vaccination program to gain info but lets not act as if folks were not already getting killed or hurt for trying to help others get vaccinations well before the OBL plot.

SunSeeker

(51,367 posts)
7. The root cause appears to be Muslim clerics' assertions that polio vaccines cause sterility.
Tue May 28, 2013, 08:22 PM
May 2013

The article says lies about the polio vaccine were spread by Nigerian religious leaders.

It is hard enough to distribute, for example, polio vaccines to children in desperately poor, politically unstable regions that are rife with 10-year-old rumors that the medicine is a Western plot to sterilize girls—false assertions that have long since been repudiated by the Nigerian religious leaders who first promoted them.


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-cia-fake-vaccination-campaign-endangers-us-all

According to world humanitarian organizations, as of April 2013, continued rumors about sterility (not belief it is a CIA DNA gathering scheme) is at the root of the resistance to the polio vaccine:

For years, polio vaccination has faced strong resistance within conservative Islamic communities in northern Nigeria, largely due to a deep distrust of the West, persistent rumours that the vaccine is harmful, and the house-to-house approach taken by immunization campaigners, which many saw as intrusive.

...
For years there has been suspicion that the polio vaccine is laced with infertility hormones as part of a US-led plot to reduce the Muslim population. The Kano State government suspended polio immunization between September 2003 and November 2004 following the spread of such rumours by some Muslim clerics. The suspension led to an unprecedented number of infections and transmission of the virus to 17 countries that had been polio-free.

Kano resident Zulaihatu Mahmud says most people understand polio is caused by a virus, but even so, she and others fear the vaccine could be harmful: “Nobody wants their child to be crippled by polio, and nobody wants her child to be sterile, either.”
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97781/Analysis-Roots-of-polio-vaccine-suspicion



Turbineguy

(37,206 posts)
8. Good thinking guys,
Wed May 29, 2013, 06:39 AM
May 2013

polio saves them the trouble of shooting or blowing up so many people. The downside is that it may take away child suicide bomber recruits.

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