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Bill Gates Worried Over Pakistan Violence Against Polio Teams

ISLAMABAD: Violence in Pakistan worries America’s software tycoon-turned-philanthropist, Bill Gates, who aims at eradicating polio by 2018.

In Pakistan, which is still battling polio, aid workers have to deal not only with the disease but with assassinations. On Tuesday, three vaccinators were shot dead in Karachi and one in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mansehra town.

The World Health Organization is also concerned about Pakistan. It says Peshawar is the largest reservoir of endemic polio viruses in the world.

In an interview in New York yesterday, billionaire Bill Gates said anti-polio drive of his foundation – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – in Pakistan and Nigeria may face a delay as a result of violence. “It will be a setback for our goal of eradicating polio by 2018,” he said.

The Microsoft founder has poured a large part of his personal fortune into the drive and encouraged fellow billionaires to contribute.

“Local conspiracy theories have undermined inoculation drives…The truth is the vaccine is to help kids and and spreading rumors and attacking the workers in injustice,” he said.

Tuesday’s attack on polio workers in Karachi forced the suspension of vaccination in the whole province of Sindh.

No group has claimed responsibility but Pakistani militants have killed several polio workers and police protecting them in recent months.

Despite religious clerics’ calcification that polio vaccinations are not against Islam and the Shariah, Taliban and other militant groups oppose the polio drops considering such campaigns a cover for spying. They also claim the vaccine is intended to make Muslim boys sterile.

On the other hand, the government is committed to carry on the campaign across the country.

President Mamnoon Hussain said despite immense security challenges Pakistan was committed to polio eradication. He vowed that every step would be taken to eradicate the crippling disease from the country.