The health of hundreds of thousands of children has been put at risk after the Taliban announced a ban on a polio immunization campaign in the country’s tribal areas to protest against US airstrikes. The ban affects the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan.
Pakistan is one of only three countries where the disease is endemic. It usually infects children living in unsanitary conditions. A total of 145,000 children in North Waziristan and 81,000 in South Waziristan were supposed to be immunized. Such programs have come under suspicion since it became known a Pakistani doctor ran a fake vaccination program to help the CIA track down Osama bin Laden.