polio

A girl cries before receiving polio vaccine drops at a government children's hospital in Peshawar on March 3, 2015. Pakistan authorities have arrested hundreds of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children against polio.

Facing a determined opposition, Pakistani officials tell parents to vaccinate their kids or go to jail

Health

Some parents in Pakistan so deeply mistrust the polio vaccine that they’re refused over and over again to let their kids get their shots. Now one fed-up province in Pakistan, which has the most polio cases of any country on Earth, is tossing those parents in jail until they relent.

A polio worker gives polio vaccine drops to a child in Islamabad. Pakistan is also the only polio-endemic country in the world where polio cases rose from 2012 to 2013.

What’s stopping some Pakistani parents from letting their children be vaccinated?

Health & Medicine