# 6916
Another tragic story this morning involving polio vaccination workers, this time out of Nigeria, where two separate attacks have left 9 health care workers dead.
The following headline from the Daily Mail says it all.
NINE female health workers shot dead in Nigeria as polio revenge attacks spread
- Islamist militant group Boko Haram been blamed for carrying out attack
- Witnesses said the gunmen arrived on three-wheel taxis
- Further setback to efforts to eradicate polio in Nigeria
- Religious clerics believe vaccines would sterilise children
This latest attack comes on top of 16 murders of Polio workers in Pakistan over the past two months (see Pakistan: Fresh Attacks On WHO/UNICEF Polio Workers, 7 More Aid Workers Killed In Pakistan).
Nigeria is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic (along with Afghanistan and Pakistan).
Unlike Pakistan, where local Taliban leaders banned Polio immunization campaigns after the use of a sham vaccination campaign by the CIA in the pursuit of Osama Bin Laden (see Maryn McKenna’s Update: Pakistan, Polio, Fake Vaccines And The CIA), today’s attack appears to be part of a larger effort to impose Sharia law in Nigeria by a militant Islamist group.
