Health workers flogged in Nimba

Health workers administering polio vaccines in communities within the commercial district of Ganta, Nimba County were said to have been attacked and forced to leave the communities on Tuesday June 30.

The angry residents are claiming the polio vaccine is that of the deadly Ebola virus that is intended to kill their children. The report comes as Liberia records its first Ebola death after weeks of being declared freed of the tropical disease.

One health worker, Rudden Sendolo told our correspondent in the county that they were attacked and forced to leave the communities after they began the vaccination exercise there.

Sendolo further told the New Dawn that the residents are claiming the Polo vaccine to be Ebola drug. He said as a result of the misinformation being spread, many parents are preventing their children from being vaccinated, while some have resorted to attacking health workers. Health workers across the country begun a nationwide polio immunization of children below the ages of 5 few days ago.

Our correspondent said Ganta is the only city so far where such attack against health workers has been reported. Local health authorities in the county are yet to comment on the situation. By Franklin Doloquee, Nimba-Edited by Othello B. Garblah