At least 14 people have been killed and 10 others wounded when a suicide bomber attacked a polio vaccination center in southwestern Pakistan Wednesday. 

The attack occurred in the city of Quetta, the capital of violence-plagued Bauchistan province, and authorities say most of the casualties were security personnel.  Provincial authorities said vaccinators and security officers had gathered at the center before being dispatched throughout Quetta during an ongoing three-day immunization campaign when the bomber struck.

Attempts to eradicate polio through immunization drives in Pakistan — one of only three countries where polio remains endemic — have been stymied by repeated attacks on health workers and security personnel. At least 80 people have been killed in such attacks since 2012.

Religious groups in rural Pakistan have long seen the anti-polio campaign as a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslims, and Islamist militants suspect it is a front for espionage.

Despite the attacks, 2015 saw a substantial 84 percent drop in polio cases in Pakistan, according to officials and international donors.
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