Healthy Skepticism Library item: 218

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Publication type: news

Official Defends Polio Vaccinne Boycott
The New York Times 2004 Feb 26

Full text:

KANO, Nigeria (AP) — A Nigerian state governor defended a boycott of a polio immunization campaign, asserting a spreading outbreak of the disease was a ``lesser of two evils’‘ than rendering women infertile with vaccines that some Islamic leaders have deemed a U.S. plot against Muslims.

Kano state governor Ibrahim Shekarau told The Associated Press Wednesday that he ``regrets reports’‘ that delaying vaccinations is worsening a polio epidemic that U.N. officials say is spreading across Nigeria’s borders and threatening the goal of eradicating the disease by 2005.

The World Health Organization and others — hoping to contain the outbreak — launched a drive Monday to inoculate 63 million children in 10 west and central African nations, including Nigeria.

Door-to-door vaccinations have been banned in Kano, Zamfara and Niger — three predominantly Islamic states in northern Nigeria — since last October, with critics calling the immunization campaign a U.S. plot to spread AIDS or infertility among Muslims.

Shekarau said he believes ``it is a lesser of two evils to sacrifice two, three, four, five, even ten children (to polio) than allow hundreds of thousands or possibly millions of girl-children likely to be rendered infertile.’‘

Tests carried out on the vaccine by his state’s scientists last year found traces of hormones that ``we want explained,’‘ the governor added. His comments came as Bauchi, another predominantly Muslim state, on Wednesday rejoined the four-day immunization campaign.

United Nations Children’s Fund spokesman Gerrit Beger said vaccinators were ``quite successful’‘ in Bauchi where he said officials allowed the campaign to begin on Wednesday morning.

Bauchi had just two days earlier suspended participation in the vaccine drive. Reasons for its apparent reversal were unclear and officials there could not be reached for comment.

U.N. officials have declared that Kano is the epicenter of a polio outbreak spreading from Nigeria to at least seven other African nations where the disease had been eliminated.

The disease, caused by the human poliovirus, has been eradicated in Europe, the Americas, much of Asia and Australia. It usually infects children under the age of five through contaminated drinking water and attacks the central nervous system, causing paralysis, muscular atrophy, deformation and, in some cases, death.

A 16-year, multibillion dollar international immunization effort has reduced the number of victims disabled by the disease from 350,000 in 1988 to less than 1,000 last year.

Yet nearly one-half of those are in Nigeria, where several predominantly Muslim states have forbidden health workers to participate in the program to distribute the vaccines door-to-door, which ends Thursday.

The delay of a report by a Nigerian team of scientists, politicians and religious leaders sent abroad this month to observe tests on the vaccines and allay fears has instead fed rumors and speculation about its safety.

Nigerian Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo declined Wednesday to speak about the report, widely expected to be released at the end of the month.

Lambo accused the vaccine’s detractors — led by states governed by the country’s main opposition party — of manipulating the vaccine boycott ``to score political points’‘ against the federal government.

``People are just saying it is not safe because they want to score political points. I want to assure you the government of Nigeria has no hidden agenda against the Muslims. They are also Nigerians and the federal government would not try to kill them,’‘ Lambo told reporters.

Shekarau angrily denied the charge, insisting he wouldn’t ``play politics with the lives of children.’‘

``I would rather give up my position than sacrifice one child to remain in power,’‘ he said.

Shekarau urged U.N. and Nigerian officials to explain why several rounds of tests carried out by detractors allegedly showed trace levels of a type of the female hormone estrogen, which some Muslim politicians fear could cause infertility.

U.N. officials have stressed that, at the levels alleged, the hormones would be absolutely harmless and less than the amount in breast milk, if in fact they were present in the vaccines at all.

Apart from Nigeria, Africa’s anti-polio campaign is taking place in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Niger, Cameroon, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic and Chad.