CANBERRA: In an attempt aiming at to end attacks on polio vaccination teams which are hampering the eradication of the virus in some countries with large Muslim populations, the officials of World Health Organisation (WHO) and Islamic leaders plan to meet in Egypt next week.
In the past three months, over twenty health workers have been killed by armed assailants in Pakistan and Nigeria in a series of attacks linked to a backlash against the immunization program against the crippling virus.
“Shooting health workers who are protecting kids from this crippling disease is against the Quran and everything Islam stands for,” WHO’s Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward said in Canberra on Friday.
“Muslim leaders have been great advocates of immunization and generally the support has always been there. In Cairo, we are meeting senior Islamic leaders to get a sense of what we can do, and ask them how can you help us,” said Aylward.
After a 25-year campaign, most nations have successfully been cleared from polio with the effort of WHO, but three nations including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria still remain trapped by the virus because some influential Muslim leaders in these countries oppose the polio vaccination program as a conspiracy of western medicine.
WHO’s Assistant Director said the top health organization remains on target to eradicate polio globally by 2018, despite a violent backlash from militant groups in Pakistan and Nigeria.
DND
