Polio Vaccine Banned in North Nigeria

[NousDefionsDoc]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/02/25/africa.polio.ap/index.html

[Roguish Lawyer]

Idiots.

[pulque]

The president of Nigeria received the lab reports yesterday (negative for estradiol, progesterone, HIV). I hope they get going on this.

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/328/7439/544-e

[pulque]

Kano Province is the only Province out of 36 that is still refusing the vaccine.

-------------

Police Ban Demonstration to Support Kano's Rejection of Polio Vaccines

Vanguard (Lagos)

April 1, 2004
Posted to the web April 1, 2004

Kano

Nigeria Police in Kano, yesterday banned a demonstration to support the state government's rejection of the UN-administered polio vaccine for their children. More than 100 anti-riot police stormed the venue of the demonstration, organised by 32 Kano-based non-governmental organisations under the auspices of Kano Peoples Forum (KPF). The rally was intended to express support to the state government's rejection of the oral polio vaccine promoted by UN health agencies despite the country's federal government certification of the vaccine as safe. "We planned to hold a procession from the Emir's palace to the government house to thank the Emir and governor on the decision they took over the polio vaccine," KPF president Yahaya Imam said.

"Unfortunately, the police informed us that the permit given to us had been withdrawn on security grounds," he said. "We believe the federal government ordered the ban and considering its stand on the polio controversy, the federal government is rattled by the prospects of the large turnout and the impact the protests will have not only in Kano but across northern Nigeria," he added.

The police said they took the decision to prevent violence in the aftermath of last Saturay's local government polls in the country.

"The demonstration was planned just four days after council elections and we can't risk allowing it to go ahead because it could be hijacked by aggrieved politicians to cause violence," state police spokesman Mohammed Baba said. "As security operatives, we have no interest in the polio issue, our duty is to maintain law and order. We feel the demonstration is ill-timed," he added. Kano, at the heart of the world's fastest growing outbreak of the crippling disease, rejected the vaccine after Muslim clerics and leaders alleged the drugs were laced with anti-fertility agents and the HIV/AIDS virus in order to depopulate Africa.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200404010653.html

[pulque]

Nigerian State Says It Will Vaccinate Against Polio
By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Published: May 27, 2004

BUJA, Nigeria, May 26 - Ibrahim Shekarau, the Kano state governor whose eight-month moratorium on polio vaccinations has been blamed for the spread of polio widely across Africa, said in an interview on Tuesday that he was ready to resume immunizations.

The suspension was prompted by claims, led by Muslim clerics and political leaders, that the polio vaccine contained a hormone that could lead to infertility. The World Health Organization has said tests show no scientific basis for such a charge.



http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/27/international/africa/27nige.html

[The Reaper]

Originally posted by pulque
Nigerian State Says It Will Vaccinate Against Polio
By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Whew, what a relief!

Now I can finally go get that $22 million that a former member of the royal family is holding there for me!

TR

[Sigi]

Originally posted by The Reaper
Whew, what a relief!

Now I can finally go get that $22 million that a former member of the royal family is holding there for me!

TR
Hey, hey, hey. Hold on. We may have to split that according to the last e-mail I received. :D

[pulque]

22 JUNE 2004 | GENEVA -- Epidemiologists of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative today issued a stark warning that west and central Africa is on the brink of the largest polio epidemic in recent years. The warning follows confirmation today that a child was paralyzed on 20 May by polio in the Darfur region of the Sudan, a country which had not seen the disease in more than three years. The virus is closely linked genetically to poliovirus endemic to northern Nigeria, which has spread through Chad in recent months.

Epidemiological data show that transmission of wild poliovirus continues to accelerate at an alarming rate in the region. In addition to the re-infection of the Sudan, five times as many children in west and central Africa have been paralyzed by polio so far in 2004 compared to the same period in 2003. 197 children have been paralyzed in Nigeria, following the suspension of polio immunization campaigns in northern Nigeria late last year.


http://www.who.int/mediacentre/releases/2004/pr45/en/