In October Islamic religious leaders in Northern Nigera complained that the US was contaminating polio vaccine with AIDS. Their decision threatened not only their own population with polio epidemic, but surrounding populations as well. An expert panel of doctors and Islamic scholars was formed to look at the issue, but the results are bad news for all concerned:
Nigerian and international health officials had hoped that Kano State’s 13-member committee would help calm fears stirred up by radical Muslim preachers that the polio vaccine has been laced with anti-fertility drugs by Western governments bent on depopulating Africa.Instead, committee chairman Dr Lawal Alassan Bichi, told AFP that the team had found traces of the reproductive hormone oestrogen in the drugs which it feared that it could damage girl babies’ future fertility, and would not be recommending a resumption of immunisation.
The Kano committee’s warning flies in the face of international medical opinion and the conclusion of Nigeria’s own federal health ministry — which conducted similar tests on the vaccine last month — and is a blow to the World Health Organisation’s hopes of eradicating polio this year.
The decision also goes against the Organization of the Islamic Conference who have recently resolved to eradicate polio. [WHO document - PDF]. The WHO have published an appraisal of Nigeria’s polio status [See page 5 of this PDF]; Nigeria has 45% of all polio cases in the world. While some may say so what, it’s their choice, the situation in Nigeria threatens to halt the eradication programme for polio, which would benefit all in this world. Interesting to see the WHO have this plea on their site:
Jonathan Majiyagbe, President of Rotary International, calls for stronger commitment to polio radication during a recent trip to his native Nigeria“As a Rotarian, as a Nigerian, as President of one of the spearheading partners of the Initiative, I call on the leaders of each state in Nigeria to take direct oversight of polio eradication activities, and ensure all children are protected against this paralyzing disease.”
I wonder if being a Rotarian is a useful attribute, since other extremists see the Rotary Club as a symbol of the West’s depravity, and they even feature in Al Qaeda training manuals:
Colonialism and its followers, the apostate rulers, then started to openly erect crusader centers, societies, and organizations like Masonic Lodges, Lions and Rotary clubs, and foreign schools. They aimed at producing a wasted generation that pursued everything that is western and produced rulers, ministers, leaders, physicians, engineers, businessmen, politicians, journalists, and information specialists.