Taliban

The International Red Cross is drastically reducing its presence in Afghanistan after seven staff members were killed in attacks this year. Many other humanitarian organisations have pulled out of the country in recent years as Taliban and Islamic State militants have stepped up attacks.

Heavy fighting between government militia and the Taliban in Northern Afghanistan has increased demand for doctors—and death threats.

So far in 2014, there have been 20 attacks on polio workers in Pakistan that have killed 32 people, according to data I collected using news reports; and the attacks are only escalating in lethality and violence. In 2013, there were 29 attacks against polio workers, killing 22 people; and in 2012, there were only nine attacks that resulted in the deaths of 10 people.

Being a front-line health worker usually isn't controversial. But in Pakistan, it can get you killed. The Taliban went on an offensive against polio immunization in 2012 after it became clear that the CIA used a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign to gather intelligence on Osama bin Laden. Since then, more than 60 polio workers have been gunned down.

These days, policeman with AK-47s don't look out of place during a polio immunization campaign in Pakistan. Neither do elite counterterrorism forces staffing impromptu neighborhood checkpoints, while health workers conduct vaccination drives. On a February weekend in Karachi, camouflaged paramilitary soldiers cordoned off a neighborhood known as Gadap Town, shut down two lanes of traffic, and refused entry to all non-residents. Motorbikes were temporarily banned, because of the frequency with which militants use them in drive-by shootings.