Pakistan: Antivaccine Parents Arrested

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/world/asia/pakistan-antivaccine-parents-arrested.html

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Hundreds of parents in northwestern Pakistan were arrested and jailed on charges of endangering public security after refusing to allow their children to be vaccinated for polio, officials said Monday. Feroz Shah, a spokesman for the district administration in Peshawar, capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, said 471 people had been jailed starting over the weekend in the city and surrounding villages. The authorities have made scattered arrests in the past for polio refusals, but widespread arrests are rare. Pakistan is one of three countries where polio is endemic, and last year it accounted for the vast majority of reported cases. Some Pakistanis fear vaccinations will make their children sterile, and the Taliban have attacked medical workers.