Two women health workers killed while giving polio vaccine in Pakistan

Karachi: In yet another attack on a team of polio workers, unidentified gunmen today shot down three persons, including two women, carrying out vaccination programme in here. The attack in Qayyumabad area came a day after Sindh health authorities began inoculation of some 7.6 million children of the province with polio vaccine as part of a nationwide drive to continue till Thursday. The first day of the immunisation campaign had concluded without any untoward incident. The children of Sindh are among the over 33 million in Pakistan who are being administered with the polio vaccine during the National Immunisation Days. [caption id=“attachment_1350845” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AP[/caption]Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world where polio is still endemic, but efforts to stamp out the crippling disease have been hit by repeated attacks on health teams. In July 2012, a foreign doctor was injured when unidentified armed men opened fire on a United Nations vehicle passing through Koochi Camp near Sohrab Goth. Most of the attacks on polio workers in Karachi have occurred in the outskirts of the city, areas notorious as militant strongholds. According to Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), Sindh, seven polio cases were reported in Karachi in 2013. PTI