Gunmen kill five members of polio vaccination team in Afghanistan

dpa Kabul At least five members of a polio vaccination team were shot dead in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar, local officials said on Tuesday...

dpa KabulAt least five members of a polio vaccination team were shot dead in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar, local officials said on Tuesday.Another four vaccine personnel were wounded in the separate attacks in Khogyani and Surkh Road districts as well as in the provincial capital Jalalabad city, the provincial governor’s office said.Afghanistan launched a four-day polio vaccination drive on Monday in an effort to inoculate 9.9 million children under the age of five.Following the attacks, the door-to-door campaign was suspended in the eastern region, a Health Ministry official confirmed.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but health workers frequently come under attack in the country. Many people in the religiously conservative society believe the vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile.In March, at least three female polio vaccinators were killed in the same province.About 3.3 million children have been deprived of the drops in recent years due to the Taliban militants opposition who are not allowing the campaign in the areas under their control.In 2020, the country recorded 56 cases of crippling disease and more than 300 cases of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV).Pakistan and Afghanistan are among only a few countries in the world where polio is still endemic.