Deutsche Welle: The ‘bin Laden hunt doctor’ case and its impact on polio vaccinations
“Initially sentenced to 33 years in prison for being a member of Lashkar-e-Islam, a militant group based in Pakistan’s Khyber Agency tribal area, Shakil Afridi is better known for his alleged involvement in a fake hepatitis vaccination campaign in which DNA samples were collected to help the U.S. track down former al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in 2011. … But perhaps even more importantly, the controversy surrounding the Afridi case and his alleged role in the killing of bin Laden created a lot of hitches for key vaccination programs, as Ayesha Raza Farooq, the Pakistani prime minister’s focal person for polio eradication, told DW…” (Dominguez, 6/25).