Polio is once again spreading in Pakistan, where officials say more than 1 million children missed their vaccination doses last month, underscoring the challenges they face in eradicating one of the world’s most intractable diseases.

Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.

Cases of the polio virus – which causes paralysis or even death – have been rising across Pakistan – especially in southwestern Balochistan, southern Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and eastern Punjab provinces,

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries where polio remains endemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO): world news