----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 1:28 PM
Subject: [unioNews] For your attention
> Malik Al-Arkam spotted this on the Guardian Unlimited site and thought you
should see it.
>
> To see this story with its related links on the Guardian Unlimited site,
go to http://www.guardian.co.uk
>
> Polio jabs a US plot, claim Nigerian Muslims
> Jeevan Vasagar
> Tuesday February 24 2004
> The Guardian
>
>
> A campaign to wipe out polio in Africa is being jeopardised by suspicions
among Muslim leaders in Nigeria that the vaccination programme is an
American plot to make Muslims infertile.
>
> A boycott of the oral polio vaccine spread to two more Muslim-dominated
states in northern Nigeria yesterday, after three states banned the vaccine
campaign last year.
>
> Some Muslim families have turned away vaccination teams even in states
where the campaign has been allowed.
>
> The rumours are believed to have originated from American websites
promoting alternative medicine, and include claims that the vaccine contains
anti-fertility drugs, can cause Aids, and is linked to mad cow disease.
>
> The World Health Organisation and Unicef launched a massive polio
immunisation drive this week which aims to inoculate 63 million children in
10 African countries against the virus.
>
> WHO fears that the boycott will turn northern Nigeria into a breeding
ground for polio, endangering public health across west and central Africa.
>
> In recent months, an outbreak of polio in Kano, one of the Nigerian states
which suspended immunisation, has spread the disease to seven neighbouring
African countries where it had previously been eradicated.
>
> Unicef's spokesman, Gerrit Beger, said: "Nigeria is the weakest link in
the global campaign to stop the transmission of the polio virus.
>
> "We are using the same vaccine in Nigeria that we use everywhere else in
the world.
>
> "It is saddening because this is a lost opportunity for children to be
immunised. Any delay in immunisation is a threat to the health of children
in Nigeria.
>
> He said that the number of children contracting the virus has been reduced
from 350,000 worldwide in 1988 to less than 1,000 last year.
>
> But he warned: "By further delaying immunisation we risk reversing our
gains."
>
> Last August, the governor of Kano state suspended the polio campaign and
set up a committee to investigate the infertility claims. In January the
committee said they had found traces of the female hormone oestrogen that
could affect fertility. Tests elsewhere have not found hormone contamination
and experts insist the vaccine is safe.
>
> Nigeria's Niger state allowed the vaccinations to start on Monday, but
ordered them stopped at the end of the day.
>
> A spokesman, Mahmud Abdullahi said: "Polio immunisation has become
controversial. So to be on the safe side, the Niger state government has
decided to suspend polio immunisation until we're reassured it's safe."
>
> In Kaduna state, where the vaccine was banned last year, officials
relented on Monday and allowed the programme to go ahead. Health workers
chalked ticks on the houses of accepting families, and the letter R on the
walls of those who refused.
>
> Nigeria's federal government sent politicians, scientists and religious
leaders abroad this month to observe how the vaccine is produced and tested.
The results of this investigation are due to be published later this week.
>
> Muslims in Nigeria have been wary of medical programmes after 1996 when
families in Kano state accused the drug firm Pfizer of using an experimental
meningitis treatment on patients without fully informing them of the risks.
>
> Copyright Guardian Newspapers Limited
>
>
> lllll
> QUOTATION:
>
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within another generation"
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Marcus Mosiah Garvey <i>(1887 - 1940)</i></A></html>
>
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