Polio vaccine tests: all clear
2003-11-25 13:26
London - Laboratory testing has dismissed public accusations that Nigeria's mass immunisation campaign included polio vaccine contaminated with HIV and anti-fertility hormones.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) campaign to rid the world of polio was suspended in three northern regions of Nigeria in October when wildfire rumours claimed that the vaccine was laced with HIV and hormones to render women infertile.
Some prominent Islamic clerics publicly suggested that the vaccine is part of a Western plot to depopulate Africa.
New Scientist magazine reports this week, however, that extensive tests by experts recruited by the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria gave the all clear.
WHO has meanwhile sent senior officials to Nigeria for crisis talks with local leaders in a bid to re-start the programme.
Both international and Nigerian health officials are concerned that the delay could lead to polio spreading to neighbouring countries, where the deadly disease has been banished.
Nigeria is currently ranked as the country worst affected by polio in the world, with nearly half of the 520 polio cases seen worldwide so far in 2003 reported in Nigeria.
The disease can cause death and paralysis, but a United Nations-led eradication programme has now confined its extent to just seven countries worldwide.
- African Eye