Accessibility links Skip to content Skip to local navigation Accessibility Help bbc.co.uk navigation News Sport Weather Travel Future TV Radio More… Search term: 
Asia Home UK Africa Asia Europe Latin America Mid-East US & Canada Business Health Sci/Environment Tech Entertainment Video Asia Business China India 19 December 2012Last updated at 06:42 GMT Share this page Delicious Digg Facebook reddit StumbleUpon Twitter Email Print Pakistan polio attacks: Peshawar health worker injured 
Pakistan is considered a key battleground in the global fight against polio A Pakistani health worker has been shot and injured in Peshawar, the latest in a spate of attacks against a polio vaccination drive in the country. On Tuesday, a UN-backed programme to eradicate the disease was suspended in Karachi after four female health workers were shot dead in the city.
No group has said it carried out the shootings, but the Taliban have issued threats against the polio drive.
Pakistan is one of just three countries where the disease is still endemic.
In Wednesday's attack, gunmen opened fire on a team of four men administering polio vaccinations in Peshawar, critically injuring one, doctors told Reuters news agency.
It came a day after a female worker died after an attack in the north-western city.
Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Tuesday condemned the attacks and praised the work of the polio vaccination teams, calling on regional authorities to guarantee their safety.
Wednesday is the final day of a three-day nationwide anti-polio drive - during which an estimated 5.2 million polio drops were to be administered.
Continue reading the main storyPolio's last stand? 2012 cases Nigeria - 97 Pakistan - 47 Afghanistan - 26 Chad - 5Source: IMB
There has been opposition to such immunisation drives in parts of Pakistan, particularly after a fake CIA hepatitis vaccination campaign helped to locate Osama Bin Laden in 2011.Militants have kidnapped and killed foreign NGO workers in the past in an attempt to halt the immunisation drives, which they say are part of efforts to spy on them.
Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only other countries where polio is still endemic.
Pakistan is considered the key battleground in the global fight against the disease, which attacks the nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis within hours of infection.
Continue reading the main storyPolio facts Highly infectious viral disease Transmitted via contaminated faeces Can cause irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs A minority of cases are fatal Almost 200 children were paralysed in the country in 2011 - the worst figures in 15 years.Earlier this year, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative warned that tackling the disease had entered "emergency mode" after "explosive" outbreaks in countries previously free of polio.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said polio was at a tipping point, with experts fearing it could "come back with a vengeance" after large outbreaks in Africa and Tajikistan and China's first recorded cases for more than a decade.
Declaring polio a national emergency, the Pakistani government is targeting 33 million children for vaccination with some 88,000 health workers delivering vaccination drops.
Poliomyelitis has existed as long as human society, but became a major public health issue in late Victorian times with major epidemics in Europe and the United States. The disease, which causes spinal and respiratory paralysis, can kill and remains incurable but vaccines have assisted in its almost total eradication today. 
This Egyptian stele (an upright stone carving) dating from 1403-1365BC shows a priest with a walking stick and foot, deformities characteristic of polio. The disease was given its first clinical description in 1789 by the British physician Michael Underwood, and recognised as a condition by Jakob Heine in 1840. The first modern epidemics were fuelled by the growth of cities after the industrial revolution. 
In 1916, New York experienced the first large epidemic, with more than 9,000 cases and 2,343 deaths. The 1916 toll nationwide was 27,000 cases and 6,000 deaths. Children were particularly affected; the image shows child patients suffering from eye paralysis. Major outbreaks became more frequent during the century: in 1952, the US saw a record 57,628 cases. 
In 1928, Philip Drinker and Louie Shaw developed the "iron lung" to save the lives of those left paralysed by polio and unable to breathe. Most patients would spend around two weeks in the device, but those left permanently paralysed faced a lifetime of confinement. By 1939, around 1,000 were in use in the US. Today, the iron lung is all but gone, made redundant by vaccinations and modern mechanical ventilators. 
A major breakthrough came in 1952 when Dr Jonas Salk (L) began to develop the first effective vaccine against polio. Mass public vaccination programmes followed and had an immediate effect; in the US alone cases fell from 35,000 in 1953 to 5,300 in 1957. In 1961, Albert Sabin (R) pioneered the more easily administered oral polio vaccine (OPV). 
Despite the availability of vaccines polio remained a threat, with 707 acute cases and 79 deaths in the UK as late as 1961. In 1962, Britain switched to Sabin's OPV vaccine, in line with most countries in the developed world. There have been no domestically acquired cases of the disease in the UK since 1982. 
By 1988, polio had disappeared from the US, UK, Australia and much of Europe but remained prevalent in more than 125 countries. The same year, the World Health Assembly adopted a resolution to eradicate the disease completely by the year 2000. 
The WHO Americas region was certified polio free in 1994, with the last wild case recorded in the Western Pacific region (which includes China) in 1997. A further landmark came in 2002, when the WHO certified the European region polio-free. 
In 2012, Polio remains officially endemic in four countries - Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and India, which is on the verge of being removed from the list having not had a case since January 2011. Despite so much progress, polio remains a risk with virus from Pakistan re-infecting China in 2011, which had been polio free for more than a decade. previous slidenext slide Share this page Delicious Digg Facebook reddit StumbleUpon Twitter Email Print More Asia stories RSS
S Koreans vote for new presidentSouth Koreans are choosing between the daughter of a military strongman and son of North Korean refugees in presidential election seen as too close to call.
Japan whalers win activist banWorld Bank raises China forecast Top Stories
UBS in $1.5bn Libor rigging fine S Koreans vote for new president Nearest Sun-like star has planets Report condemns Benghazi failings Obama 'backs assault weapons ban' Features & Analysis
Train hoppingWhy do hobos risk their lives to ride the rails?
Quiz of the yearPart two of our questioning review of 2012
New reality?Japan eyes power shift as Beijing tensions simmer
ANC's prodigal sonCyril Ramaphosa - suave unionist with a taste for the good life
Most PopularShared 1: Instagram seeks right to sell photos 2: Antibiotics 'ineffective for coughs' 3: How Australia tackled gun crime 4: Instagram denies photo selling 5: Troops raise money Gangnam Style Read 1: Nearest Sun-like star has planets 2: UBS fined $260m for Libor rigging 3: Obama 'backs assault weapons ban' 4: Killer's psychiatrist sentenced 5: Antibiotics 'ineffective for coughs' 6: Instagram denies photo selling 7: Singapore's start-ups seek success 8: Japan faces up to Chinese shadow 9: India's Gandhi visits rape victim 10: S Koreans vote for new president Video/Audio 1: Crocodile's flying leap at swimmer Watch 2: How Australia tackled gun crime Watch 3: Mudslide derails moving train Watch 4: Badly behaved croc attacks lawn mower Watch 5: 'Prostitution was empowering' Watch 6: Costa Ricans mourn celebrity crocodile Watch 7: Obama supports assault weapons ban Watch 8: Deep freeze sweeps through Ukraine Watch 9: How Amazon manages 35 orders a second Watch 10: One-minute World News Watch Programmes
Click WatchFrom ordering online to arriving at your door – behind the scenes of online retail
Services Mobile Connected TV News feeds Alerts E-mail news About BBC News Editors' blog BBC College of Journalism News sources Media Action BBC links Mobile siteTerms of UseAbout the BBC Advertise With UsPrivacyBBC Help Ad ChoicesCookiesAccessibility Help Parental GuidanceContact Us
BBC © 2012 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
