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Two separate attacks by gunmen on motorcycles have left nine polio vaccination workers dead in the northern Nigeria city of Kano. The effort will likely be a setback against polio vaccination in one of three countries where polio is still endemic.

"Gunmen opened fire on a health centre in the Hotoro district, killing seven, while an attack on the Zaria Road area of the city claimed two lives," a police spokesman, Magaji Musa, said, according to the Guardian. "[The health workers] were working for the state government giving out polio vaccinations at the time of the attack."

According to Reuters, no one has come forward to accept responsibility for the attacks. However, many eyes are on the Islamist group Boko Haram. The group has previously denigrated Western medicine, and has allegedly been linked to attacks on the city's security forces in the past week. The militant group also killed hundreds of people last year in an effort to impose Sharia law in the country of 160 million, which is nearly evenly split between the Christian and Muslim religions. Boko Haram is seen as a severe threat to the continent's main energy supplier, and is a significant part of why President Goodluck Jonathan backed security forces in Mali last month.

These attacks are the most recent in a trend of slayings targeted against polio workers in a period of a very short time. In Pakistan, at least 16 polio workers were also killed by attackers in December and January.

Muslim leaders in Nigeria say that polio vaccination is a Western plot to cause infertility and AIDS.

Bill Gates, speaking on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has said that he hopes that polio can be eradicated in five years.

Polio remains endemic in only three countries now: Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Last year, Nigeria had the most new cases of polio, with 121. The opposition of many Muslim leaders has been blamed for the resurgence of the virus in areas that had been polio-free before 2003.

According to the World Health Organization, polio can lead to irreversible paralysis in 1 of 200 cases. Of those, 5 to 10 percent of people can die when polio causes their respiratory muscles to become immobile.