Pakistan begins another vaccination campaign after a worrying surge in polio cases

Pakistan has begun a nationwide vaccination campaign to protect 45 million children from polio after a surge in new cases that has hampered years of efforts to stop the disease in one of the two countries where it has never been eradicated. Pakistan regularly launches such campaigns, but violence targeting the health workers and police assigned to escort them is common. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. The one-week campaign starting Monday is the third this year. Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio continues to threaten children. The Taliban stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign in Afghanistan in September.