"The tragic murders of nine anti-polio workers in Pakistan last month, followed by the New Year's Day killing of seven more local community development workers, was both a wake-up call to the global polio eradication effort in its current form, and a 'canary in the mine' regarding the deteriorating state of development and security in the country," Heidi Larson, a senior lecturer and principal investigator at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, writes in a SciDev.Net opinion piece. "The past month of public reporting and private discussions on what happened, why and what happens next have revealed a complex web of governance failings, inadequate development structures and a landscape of multiple security threats, both locally and internationally," she states, describing possible factors and challenges that lead to the killings.