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Allahâs Polio Plan
EFLLAGOS, Nigeria -- Squeezing droppers into the mouths of tearful toddlers, health workers launched an emergency drive Friday to vaccinate Nigerians against polio as a spreading outbreak threatened worldwide efforts to eradicate the disease. Teams raced to immunize 15 million African children at immediate risk -- a four-day effort impeded by rumors among Muslim fundamentalists that the vaccine was part of a U.S. plot to spread AIDS and render Muslims infertile. "The Western world has never wished Muslims well," said Yakubu Husseini, a 20-year-old teacher coming out of Friday prayers in the northern city of Kano. "Why should they expect us to believe that vaccines they make these days are not another frontier to wage war against Muslims?" Fine, make your own. Three predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria -- Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara -- have either delayed or refused permission for the vaccination drive, with Zamfara demanding proof the vaccine is safe, something U.N. officials say has been repeatedly supplied. Failure of previous vaccine initiatives in northern Nigeria have aided the diseaseâs spread internationally, recently leading to the crippling of nearly a dozen children in at least four other West African nations -- Ghana, Togo, Niger and Burkina Faso -- according to the U.N. World Health Organization. Nigeria currently has 192 known cases, several of them in Lagos state, where the disease was previously thought to have been wiped out. The Nigerian outbreak started in Kano state during the summer. Experts blame insufficient coverage during mass polio campaigns and routine treatment. In some areas only 16 percent of children were immunized during a campaign last year. The WHO says 15 million children are at risk regionally in the current outbreak. In Kano, where state officials said Friday they were delaying the vaccine drive without explaining why, a group of men leaving the cityâs main mosque discussed the decision. "Allah knows better than all Western powers combined," said Yaâu Kabir, a 26-year-old Muslim theology student. "He has guided the Muslim community since the time of old. This he did without immunization. We do not need it." Easy to say until it strikes a child you know. Give them a Darwin award. This is a culture that is embracing natural selection. Posted by: Tom 2003-10-24 |
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