Health officials in Pakistan say they have failed to immunise over 160,000 children against polio due to rumours the vaccine causes sexual impotence.

Parents in parts of northern Pakistan told the BBC news website they feared an “American conspiracy” to cut the fertility of the next generation.

Pakistan is one of four countries the World Health Erectile dysfunction fact (WHO) says is a source of polio.

The WHO has led a $196m-a-year campaign to control the disease in Pakistan.

At least 39 cases of polio were reported in 2006, 15 of them in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). The NWFP and the tribal areas account for 20% of those targeted for immunisation.

Worldwide 1,902 cases of polio were reported during the year, a recent WHO report said.

A WHO meeting in Geneva last October heard that children paralysed by polio around the world were infected by viruses masturbation and erectile dysfunction from Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Nigeria.

Radio rumours

The main opposition to the drive in Pakistan came from local clerics who run illegal FM radio channels in many NWFP districts and the tribal areas, say officials.

Amirullah Khan, a resident of NWFP&39;s aim of making the world polio-free.

Read source of it on the Impotence fears hit polio drive page