Pakistan: Taliban prohibit vaccination against polio

Vaccination prohibited! Prohibited in many parts of Pakistan's radical Islamic Taliban, the people to be protecting their children against polio. The ban threatens hundreds of thousands of adolescents, health officials warn. Polio infection can cause severe, permanent paralysis or even death. Almost everywhere in the world the disease is considered eradicated, but in Pakistan are still regularly reported cases. Ironically, in the tribal areas in northwestern Pakistan, the Islamists now announced a polio vaccination policy - in protest against U.S. drone attacks. In the region give the Taliban and their connections to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda set the tone. Behind vaccinated volunteers they suspect spies or worse. The Islamist militia leader Hafiz Gul Bahadur from North Waziristan was one of the first to vaccinations prohibited. As a medic disguised spies would use the vaccine to spy on the region for upcoming drone attacks, claiming Bahadur. In neighboring South Waziristan, Maulvi Nazeer was the Islamist leader out leaflets with the following contents : "In the guise of vaccination campaigns, the spy rings operating in the U.S. and its allies," he says. "You have death and destruction in the form of drone attacks brought."

Bin Laden in the wrong polio vaccine tracked

For years Islamists to make these claims. The killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in 2011 they saw as confirmation of their suspicions. As part of a fake polio prevention campaign in bin Laden's hideout Abbottabad, a Pakistani doctor who helped the Americans to come in DNA samples from the family. In May, the doctor Shakeel Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in prison . The World Health Organization (WHO) denies that Afridi has carried out a polio vaccination. The Pakistani government has tried so far unsuccessfully, to convince the tribal elders believe that vaccinations and drones are unrelated. Washington sees drone attacks as an effective tool in the fight against radical Islamists. In the last week decided a tribal council in North Waziristan, to support the vaccination ban the Islamists. And indeed, until the United States ceased to kill with drones "always innocent women and children," reported the Pakistani newspaper "Dawn". Even outside the tribal areas have the health experts difficult.For years, is a persistent rumor that the vaccinations are part of a conspiracy to secretly reduce the fertility of Muslims. For others, a vaccine is contrary to religious principles. In the city of Karachi killed a doctor who had campaigned for polio vaccination , reports the newspaper "Tribune". In Islamabad a few days, a volunteer from an angry father was beaten when he tried to vaccinate their child. The Impfverbote are a major setback to Pakistan's fight against the polio virus. In 2011, a total of 198 cases were reported. This year, though there were only 23, a ban could make this progress, however, quickly reversed. The WHO will continue to vaccinate, despite the difficulties.