Taliban’s no to polio vaccine puts lives of 250 thousand Pakistani children at risk
Islamabad
(AsiaNews / Agencies) - Nearly 250 thousand Pakistani children will not receive
the polio vaccine, since the government has stopped distributing the medicine
following threats from Taliban groups in the tribal regions of North and South
Waziristan. The
extremists have blocked the health program in protest against U.S. drone
attacks. Launched
yesterday throughout the country, the National
Immunization Days were the first of their kind for years.
In
North Waziristan, at least 160 thousand children were not vaccinated; same fate
for over 80 thousand children in South Waziristan. In
both cases, the leaders of the Taliban groups have "warned" health
departments and local governments not to send any operators to the villages, or
their safety would not be guaranteed.
At
first, the campaign was to have vaccinated at least one million children in the
Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). However,
the number fell to 754 thousand, when some FATA health department officials announced
that 300 thousand children had been treated in their prevention programs.
In
addition to North and South Waziristan - both regions have reported cases of
polio since the beginning of the year - the government has failed to reach the
children of the Khyber tribal regions of Orakzai, Kurram, Mohmand and Bajaur, because
of the lack of security . Of
the 23 cases of polio reported throughout the Pakistan in 2012, nine were in Khyber.
Pakistan
is one of three countries in the world - along with Nigeria and Afghanistan -
where polio is endemic. In
2011, nearly 200 children were paralyzed: according to the Lancet medical journal it is the worst record in 10 years.
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17/12/2019 09:23
03/03/2015
27/09/2019 13:09
