LONDON - Polio cases have nearly doubled this year in the West African nation of Nigeria as officials struggle to fight various natural strains of the virus as well as an outbreak set off by the polio vaccine itself three years ago.
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Outbreaks linked to the vaccine, as opposed to the naturally occurring virus, are usually stamped out within months. But Nigeria has a very low immunization rate, partly from its weak health system and also from rumors about the safety of the vaccine.

Last year at this time, Nigeria had 54 reported cases caused by wild polio virus. This year, there were 106 new cases, according to figures released by the World Health Organization last week. The vaccine-sparked outbreak has struck more than 100 children so far, including eight this year.

For every paralyzed child, there are about 1,000 others infected and spreading the highly infectious and sometimes fatal disease, experts say.

"This is a huge step backwards," said Oyewale Tomori, a polio expert at Redeemer's University in Nigeria. He said the last time the country had every type of polio was in 1999 and described the current situation as "hugely traumatic."

Such outbreaks happen only when immunization rates are low.

Oral polio vaccine contains a weakened virus. In rare instances, as the virus passes through children who have not been immunized, it changes into a form dangerous enough to ignite new outbreaks.

An injectable polio vaccine is used in the West that does not cause outbreaks, but it is more expensive and must be given by a doctor or nurse.

"There are just way too many kids in Nigeria who haven't been vaccinated and that's allowing the virus to spread," said Dr. Bruce Aylward, director of WHO's polio department.

Nearly all the children paralyzed by polio are in northern Nigeria, where a yearlong boycott of the vaccine in 2003 triggered an explosion of the disease, which was exported to more than two dozen countries worldwide.

Hard-line Nigerian Islamic clerics called for the boycott, claiming an immunization campaign was part of a U.S.-led plot to render Muslims infertile or infect them with AIDS. The government finally reined in the boycott campaign, but up to 30 percent of children in the north have never had a single dose of vaccine, according to WHO.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080421/ap_on_he_me/nigeria_polio_problems_2

i'm confused, the health ministry has a budget surplus but millions of Nigerians are not vaccinated. what's the money for??

the health ministry cannot walk into houses and vaccinate children by force especially if the state governments of those states are the ones in the forefront of the fight to promote illiteracy and ignorance on the altar of religion.

yeah u have a point. those northerners better keep their polio blessing from the great prophet to themselves. jk

Maybe deformity is an added beauty for the Northerners. You never can tell.

stillwater:

Maybe deformity is an added beauty for the Northerners. You never can tell.

he he he he he he!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!  In 2008?  An oil producing country with about some $50billion or more in it's so called external reserve? Yet Polio cases are "doubling" in Nigeria? A childhood disease eradicated with vaccines in most 20th world countries in the 21st century?

Gosh!

bawomolo:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080421/ap_on_he_me/nigeria_polio_problems_2

i'm confused, the health ministry has a budget surplus but millions of Nigerians are not vaccinated. what's the money for??

Your guess is as good as mine.  The ministry of health had a 300million Niara surplus in 2007 to be shared amongst the "king makers" only for Nigerian children to be hobbling about with one and a half legs around Nigeria. . .or on the streets as beggars trying to use their stumps to screw you in the arse or any orifice of your choice.   All the stumps look like what you find in a sex shop. . . .rounded and shiny!

While the whole "fasting and praying" nation of imbeciles. . .invoke the shrine gods in their villages blaming witches and wizards for using the legs of their children for "nightly meetings" and "rituals"!

Please, don't be confused!  That is the "wickedness" of the typical "Nigerian" mind!

Hmm!

almondjoy, you are largely ignorant on this issue.
The fault is not that of the health ministry, infact i vividly remember two occassions when the entire country was forced to sit at home so that health officials could vaccinate every child . . . what did the northern governors do? They sent away the health officials.
What do you expect Grange to do? Force the vaccine down the throats of unwilling, ignorant, illiterates?

It is not about whether we have money or not, polio is largely eradicated in the south . . . that it is still rampant in the north is indicative that those people are just resistant to development.

4 Him:

almondjoy, you are largely ignorant on this issue.
The fault is not that of the health ministry, infact i vividly remember two occassions when the entire country was forced to sit at home so that health officials could vaccinate every child . . . what did the northern governors do? They sent away the health officials.
What do you expect Grange to do? Force the vaccine down the throats of unwilling, ignorant, illiterates?

It is not about whether we have money or not, polio is largely eradicated in the south . . . that it is still rampant in the north is indicative that those people are just resistant to development.

We are saying the same thing. . . we are wicked to ourselves! Even in the bloody south of Nigeria. . . I happened to be in Nigeria at that time. . . most of the people did not welcome the health officials in. Can you blame them? When you do not know what kind of mixture is in the vial or if they were manufactured in India.

It is not a matter of ignorance. . . we know the facts. . . our people are wicked even to themselves!

almondjoy:

We are saying the same thing. . . we are wicked to ourselves! Even in the bloody south of Nigeria. . . I happened to be in Nigeria at that time. . . most of the people did not welcome the health officials in. Can you blame them? When you do not know what kind of mixture is in the vial or if they were manufactured in India.

It is not a matter of ignorance. . . we know the facts. . . our people are wicked even to themselves!

That is not a valid excuse. Southern children are taking the same vaccine, there are no reports of poisoning.
Why would the government import vaccines that will do more harm to children?

What if the vaccine is manufactured in India?
1. Western countries have no further incentive to manufacture the vaccines . . . they dont have polio anymore and any stock they have left is to prevent reinfection from irresponsible nations like ours.
2. Why cant we make our own vaccines? We have no right to complain about mixtures in a vial when we cant even manufacture ordinary toothpicks.

4 Him:

That is not a valid excuse. Southern children are taking the same vaccine, there are no reports of poisoning.
Why would the government import vaccines that will do more harm to children?

What if the vaccine is manufactured in India?
1. Western countries have no further incentive to manufacture the vaccines . . . they don't have polio anymore and any stock they have left is to prevent reinfection from irresponsible nations like ours.
2. Why can't we make our own vaccines? We have no right to complain about mixtures in a vial when we can't even manufacture ordinary toothpicks.

Fine!  The children who took the vaccines are still alive. . .but that is the chance you take when you have a government and health care system you cannot trust!

When those medications get to Nigeria. . . the next thing you know some traders have hijacked the containers and rediluted the medications.

4 Him:

That is not a valid excuse. Southern children are taking the same vaccine, there are no reports of poisoning.
Why would the government import vaccines that will do more harm to children?

What if the vaccine is manufactured in India?
1. Western countries have no further incentive to manufacture the vaccines . . . they don't have polio anymore and any stock they have left is to prevent reinfection from irresponsible nations like ours.
2. Why can't we make our own vaccines? We have no right to complain about mixtures in a vial when we can't even manufacture[b] ordinary toothpicks[/b].

we now manufacture toothpicks

almondjoy:

Fine! The children who took the vaccines are still alive. . .but that is the chance you take when you have a government and health care system you cannot trust!

When those medications get to Nigeria. . . the next thing you know some traders have hijacked the containers and rediluted the medications.

- Even you cannot 100% trust the American healthcare system. Try watching mystery diagnosis on the discovery channel. you'd be shocked at the large number of simple cases that often go misdiagnosed, and those are the few who are lucky enough to live long enough to get a correct diagnosis.
Life is all about chance, if we've been using the same vaccine for yrs without serious complications then i see no reason why the north shld reject them.

- The likelihood that a trader will hijack containers of vaccines imported by the health ministry is nill. These vaccines are usually opened in the presence of the person to be vaccinated, at least that has been my experience so far.

4 Him:

That is not a valid excuse. Southern children are taking the same vaccine, there are no reports of poisoning.
Why would the government import vaccines that will do more harm to children?

What if the vaccine is manufactured in India?
1. Western countries have no further incentive to manufacture the vaccines . . . they don't have polio anymore and any stock they have left is to prevent reinfection from irresponsible nations like ours.
2. Why can't we make our own vaccines? We have no right to complain about mixtures in a vial when we can't even manufacture ordinary toothpicks.

I think you misunderstand her point. Remember how some years ago, it turned out that a large number of pharmacists were involved in selling fake  PHENSIC, which turned out to be nothing more than chalk molded to look like the drug?? LMAO!!! Since when did the Federal Ministry of Health in Nigeria become iMMUNE to the Nigerian factor??

Nigeria leads fight against “killer” counterfeit drugs


Nigeria has been at the forefront of global efforts to fight counterfeit drugs since Dora Akunyili took over the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in 2001. To crack down on counterfeits, her first move was to stamp out corruption within her own agency as
In five years Akunyili, a 52-year-old professor of pharmacology, has attained celebrity status in Nigeria because of her uncompromising stand against corruption. “We have been rebuilding NAFDAC from a moribund government agency to [one that meets] international standards,” she told the Bulletin.

Nigeria is ranked as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International. Before Akunyili took over, staff abused their position to extort money from honest manufacturers at the same time as taking bribes from counterfeiters in return for access to the Nigerian medicines market. Akunyili fired the most corrupt of her officers. To encourage honesty among her remaining 3000 staff and to boost morale, she offered incentives such as training abroad, improved facilities and a better working environment.

Akunyili told the Bulletin: “The level of corruption we had in 2001 cannot in any way be compared to what we have now. It has decreased to almost zero. But it is still a problem. We cannot rule it out completely.”

The Nigerian agency is now a key player in reducing the manufacture and distribution of counterfeit medicines in West Africa. It has the support of the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental and Occupational Health Science Institute at Rutgers University in the United States of America, among other regional and international agencies including WHO.

According to Akunyili, drug counterfeiting was first reported in Nigeria as early as 1968, “So people have been dying in this country from the effect of fake drugs since the early 1970s”. In 1995, Nigeria reportedly donated 88 000 doses of meningitis vaccine to its neighbour Niger, but before the authorities realized that these vaccines were fake, about 60 000 people had been “inoculated”. Akunyili said that when she took office in 2001, fake drugs were openly circulating in her country.

Her efforts have led to increased public awareness about counterfeit drugs and tougher surveillance at Nigerian customs. She says that the number of fake drugs in circulation in Nigeria has been substantially reduced, although she and everyone else involved in fighting the illegal trade admit how difficult it is to quantify the problem and therefore measure their success. Still, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that her measures have had an impact: shopkeepers no longer dare to sell counterfeits openly for fear of being reported to the authorities. Criminals behind the trade have left Nigeria and set up business in other countries, she says. Now governments across West Africa are working closely with Nigeria to crack down on the illegal trade.

How did Akunyili do it? In 2001, most Nigerian consumers were oblivious to the danger of counterfeit drugs. “Fake drug dealers used to thrive mainly because of a lack of awareness”. The agency broadcast jingles on radio and television to make the public aware of the dangers and to encourage people to report suspicious drugs. It also regularly publishes lists of counterfeit products in the newspapers. Last year, fake drugs worth about two billion naira (US$ 16 million) were voluntarily handed over by counterfeiters or seized after tip-offs from the public.

Akunyili has hit back at the counterfeiters directly too. There is tough surveillance at ports and airports where medicines enter the country. The authorities inspect shops and markets where medicines are sold. As of June 2006, Akunyili said she had secured convictions for 45 counterfeiters with 56 cases pending. The Nigerian authorities recently opened a laboratory in Port Harcourt that analyses medicines for authenticity. Another is being set up in Calabar.

“Fake drugs were not only killing people [but] the drugs were also killing businesses. So millions of lives have been saved. Industries have been revived,” she said, referring to the damage counterfeiting does to public trust in companies and their products.

Despite Nigeria’s efforts, Akunyili said: “We are not there yet. Even 1% fake drugs is not good enough, because every life is important.” Akunyili said she has asked the Nigerian parliament to amend existing legislation to make penalties tougher, so far without success. “The penalty for a fake drug producer or importer ranges from 5000 to10 000 naira (US$ 40–80), or between three months and five years imprisonment.” The other problem is that the law is not always enforced properly: the counterfeiter may avoid jail, and fines can be insignificant compared with the huge profits from the illegal trade.

But Akunyili says that the biggest challenge her agency currently faces is the open-air drug market in the city of Onitsha in south-eastern Nigeria. She believes that the bulk of fake drugs distributed in Nigeria originate there. Police raids have been unsuccessful because market traders attacked law enforcement officers. “Our officers literally had to escape [to avoid] being lynched”. But Akunyili is determined. “If they defeat us, they have defeated Nigeria.”

Abiodun Raufu, Ibadan

http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/84/9/06-020906/en/index.html

Do you blame the Northerners or Southerners for sitting at home? Let us hope that the "mixture" the others who were brave enought to take would really have the real things in them.

Kobojunkie:

I think you misunderstand her point. Remember how some years ago, it turned out that a large number of pharmacists were involved in selling fake PHENSIC, which turned out to be nothing more than chalk molded to look like the drug?? LMAO!!!

Give or take. . .he would always misunderstand me. Thank you for pointing out what the real issue is here!

Kobojunkie:

I think you misunderstand her point. Remember how some years ago, it turned out that there were some stores selling PHENSIC, which turned out to be nothing more than chalk molded to look like the drug?? LMAO!!!

Again no excuse. Southern children are taking the same vaccines, when last did you hear of a polio case in the south?

4 Him:

Again no excuse. Southern children are taking the same vaccines, when last did you hear of a polio case in the south?

Don't jubiliate just yet. We are yet to confirm that those drugs would prevent polio in the future or if it an act of "God's " infinite mercy as usual!

4 Him:

Again no excuse. Southern children are taking the same vaccines, when last did you hear of a polio case in the south?

Don't get me wrong,  you are right but she also has a point. I know, right?? with all I know of the government and how things have yet to get better, I would hesitate at the thought of allowing even a Nigerian doctor giving me "life saving" medicine of any kind or even a Federal Ministry of Health official vaccinating me. Walahi!!! I would rather go cut gworo to eat!!!!LMAO!!! I know in the case of the northerners, illiteracy on some level maybe involved but I have to say I understand where they may be coming from.

almondjoy:

Don't jubiliate just yet. We are yet to confirm that those drugs would prevent polio in the future or if it an act of "God's " infinite mercy as usual!

haba, polio affects mainly children.
If it were just a case of "God's mercies" then why hasnt that mercy been extended up north?

Again, pls note . . . these are VACCINES not DRUGS . . . there is a huge difference between the two.
A drug treats a disease, a vaccine DOES NOT treat a disease but sensitizes the immune system to recognise a specific antigen. Immune memory from vaccines last a lifetime. That is why you dont get chicken pox twice.

The last vaccination exercise in the north was really a war of wits.

For some reason, the Northerners thought that the vaccinations coming from the west was one of the ploy to decimate their population. They figured the polio vaccine had some kind of fertility inhibitor which would make most of their women barren. One of the reasons why they decided to stay away from the exercise.

Kobojunkie
read the first post

"Nearly all the children paralyzed by polio are in northern Nigeria, where a yearlong boycott of the vaccine in 2003 triggered an explosion of the disease, which was exported to more than two dozen countries worldwide.

Hard-line Nigerian Great Religious clerics called for the boycott, claiming an immunization campaign was part of a US.-led plot to render Great Ones infertile or infect them with AIDS. The government finally reined in the boycott campaign, but up to 30 percent of children in the north have never had a single dose of vaccine, according to WHO."

The northerners are far to ignorant to start deducing not to take it because it fake. Them not taking it is as a result of messages from many ignorant Religious cleric.

Must health officials come to your house before you know that your child has to be vaccinated? Abeg I would base this issue on illiteracy and nothing else like "poisoned vaccine."

Background to the Boycott

The historical context

The polio vaccination boycott should not be considered in isolation, but rather in the context of the history of orthodox health services in northern Nigeria. Generally, utilization rates of orthodox health-care services in the region have always been low. For instance, comparative utilization rates of southern Nigeria versus northern Nigeria were 50% versus 18% in 1990 (i.e., half of people in the south used orthodox health services, compared with less than one fifth in the north), 60% versus 11% in 1999, and 64% versus 8% in 2003 [18–20].

Other historical factors that fed into the polio vaccination boycott include population and fertility regulation. In the 1980s, President Babangida's administration adopted a population policy that set a limit of four children per woman. Some people connected this population control campaign with immunization, believing that vaccination was one way the government might be reducing the population [21]. This belief was not restricted to northern Nigeria—similar opinions were also expressed in some communities in southern Nigeria.


For example, in an anthropological study carried out in Nigeria [22], an adult male participant stated that “people do carry rumour that immunisation is a secret way of controlling population.” A young female participant said “some people say that immunisation is part of the methods used to check the number of children a woman can bear.”

Another important factor that played a role in the polio vaccine boycott was the general distrust of aggressive, mass immunization programs in a country where access to basic health care is not easily available [16]. In his report for the Baltimore Sun, John Murphy wrote: “The aggressive door-to-door mass immunizations that have slashed polio infections around the world also raise suspicions. From a Nigerian's perspective, to be offered free medicine is about as unusual as a stranger's going door to door in America and handing over $100 bills. It does not make any sense in a country where people struggle to obtain the most basic medicines and treatment at local clinics” [16].

The political context

In Nigeria, states have administrative control over health affairs at the primary and secondary care levels while the federal government has control at the tertiary care level. Although the federal government sets health policy for the nation, immunization is under the primary health-care system controlled by each state government. This was why the Kano state government was able to issue a directive to halt the immunization exercise planned by the federal government.

Nigeria being a multiparty society, opposition parties exercise their political rights by constantly challenging the ruling party. After the May 2003 presidential elections the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) led by General Muhammadu Buhari, one-time military dictator and Head of State, filed a case in Nigeria's Supreme Court challenging the victory of President Olusegun Obasanjo of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) [23].

[size=15pt]Also, Kano as a state under the control of the ANPP challenged the polio vaccination exercise organized by the PDP-controlled federal government.[/size]

Nigeria is undergoing a political transition from a northern-led military regime to a southern-led democracy. Until 1999, the north had ruled the country for more than 30 of the 46 years of independence. Since the beginning of the new democratic system of government in 1999, power shifted to the south (specifically the south-west). These changes have resulted in political tensions between the south and north. These tensions might explain why the religious leaders in northern states who boycotted the polio immunization campaign believed that the southern-led federal government was acting in the interests of Western powers. The northern and southern parts of the country had different colonial experiences. While the north was colonized by the Great Religious Jihadists, the south was colonized by the British.

These colonial experiences are responsible for political differences between north and south and different attitudes to modern medicine.

http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0040073&ct=1&SESSID=23e8c2e23d698f7d4f08c41e4ba800ba

Before you blame the North unnecessarily. . . you need to find out why things ended up the way they did.  Bottom line. . . lack of trust in a system you have no faith in. . . tribalism, greed, duplicity and sheer wickedness!  It is all in history and the younger generation will keep paying for these vices. . .from the North or the south.  When those unvaccinated kids flood the streets of Lagos or you use them as "gatemen" in the Niger Delta. . .is everyone not exposed?

The North supported vaccinations only from trusted entities. I don't blame them. . .Nigeria is a treacherous society.

LASIEFAIRE:

Kobojunkie
read the first post

"Nearly all the children paralyzed by polio are in northern Nigeria, where a yearlong boycott of the vaccine in 2003 triggered an explosion of the disease, which was exported to more than two dozen countries worldwide.

Hard-line Nigerian Great Religious clerics called for the boycott, claiming an immunization campaign was part of a US.-led plot to render Great Ones infertile or infect them with AIDS. The government finally reined in the boycott campaign, but up to 30 percent of children in the north have never had a single dose of vaccine, according to WHO."

The northerners are far to ignorant to start deducing not to take it because it fake. Them not taking it is as a result of messages from many ignorant Religious cleric.

I know what you mean but you have to give them the fact that they still considered it fake, as in, it was not really to cure polio but fake as in the true intent was to render them infertile, LMAO!!! I know many of those that did boycott were illiterate who were decieved into believing the drugs would harm them rather than help them but the credibility issues with the Nigerian government did not help either. It is sort of like the issue with GM products. Many rejected GM out of fear of it being the WEST's way of, I don't know, taking over their minds But look at the current situation in many parts of the world, including Africa.

LASIEFAIRE:

Kobojunkie
read the first post

"Nearly all the children paralyzed by polio are in northern Nigeria, where a yearlong boycott of the vaccine in 2003 triggered an explosion of the disease, which was exported to more than two dozen countries worldwide.

Hard-line Nigerian Great Religious clerics called for the boycott, claiming an immunization campaign was part of a US.-led plot to render Great Ones infertile or infect them with AIDS. The government finally reined in the boycott campaign, but up to 30 percent of children in the north have never had a single dose of vaccine, according to WHO."

The northerners are far to ignorant to start deducing not to take it because it fake. Them not taking it is as a result of messages from many ignorant Religious cleric.

U know I would not really blame them for  thier thoughts. But I would blame them for not providing an alternative. If they dont trust the West, then fine. It is not unusual and it is not out of place not to trust the western powers. But they should at least look else where for their vaccines. Maybe Saudi Arabia, Dubai or some other Nation they feel they can trust  

The Trovan trial
Suspicions about Western health interventions were already circulating in northern Nigeria, ahead of the polio vaccination boycott, in the wake of Pfizer's 1996 “Trovan trial” [24–26]. The trial was discussed in detail in a BMJ feature entitled “Pfizer accused of testing new drug without ethical approval” [24].

In brief, the BMJ reports that in 1996 Pfizer sent a team to Kano during an epidemic of meningococcal meningitis. To test the efficacy of its new antibiotic trovafloxacin (Trovan), the team conducted an open-label trial in 200 children—half were given the gold standard treatment for meningitis, ceftriaxone, and half received trovafloxacin. Five of the children given trovafloxacin died, together with six who were given ceftriaxone. The BMJ reported: “The Washington Post has been investigating the trial and alleges that at least one child was not taken off the experimental drug and given the standard drug when it was clear that her condition was not improving—which is against ethical guidelines.” The BMJ reported that the Nigerian health minister appointed a federal investigative panel to determine whether the trial was conducted legally, and if so, whether it was morally right.

On May 7, 2006, The Washington Post reported that it had been privileged to see a secret report of the panel's investigation, which alleged that Pfizer undertook an “illegal trial of an unregistered drug” when the company enrolled children into the Trovan trial [27]. In response to the leaked report, Pfizer issued a press statement saying: “Pfizer is confident that no one associated with the Trovan clinical study—conducted in Kano, Nigeria during a meningitis epidemic in 1996—ever put a patient's health at risk and that the company acted in the best interests of the children involved in the study, using the best medical knowledge available” [28].

In 2001, 30 Nigerian families sued Pfizer in a federal court in New York [29]. The suit alleged: “Pfizer chose to select children to participate in a medical experiment of a new, untested and unproven drug without first obtaining their informed consent.” During the following four years, Pfi zer argued that the case should not be heard in a United States court at all [30]. In August 2005, Southern District of New York Judge William H. Pauley III agreed, ruling that Nigeria, not the US, was the proper place to try a lawsuit over Pfizer's conduct in the Trovan trial [31].

http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0040073&ct=1&SESSID=23e8c2e23d698f7d4f08c41e4ba800ba

If something like this happened in your village, would you not boycott anything else?

Thats my point. If u have taken any courses in RESEARCH ETHICS u would realize that most of these claims are not based on air. There are genuine reasons to be concerned.

almondjoy:

If something like this happened in your village, would you not boycott anything else?

Madam, you dont boycott vaccines because of failed drug trials . . . like someone suggested, what was the alternative that the northern governments provided beyond continuing to be the reservoir of the world's cases of the polio virus?

I acknowledge there are other factor involved in this, but I maintain sheer ignorance is the prevailing factor. bringing up a 1996 report is like an African American bringing up the case of Birmngham. That is in the past, it was recognized and it must have being taken well into account, so that it is not repeated. Even if they provide alternatives the ignorant northerner will always be the ignorant northerner - everly thinking the south is against them

LASIEFAIRE:

I acknowledge there are other factor involved in this, but I maintain sheer ignorance is the prevailing factor. bringing up a 1996 report is like an African American bringing up the case of Birmngham. That is in the past, it was recognized and it must have being taken well into account, so that it is not repeated[b]. Even if they provide alternatives the ignorant northerner will always be the ignorant northerner [/b] - everly thinking the south is against them

Actually if the alternatives were ratified by the so called Northern elders forum, the ordinary man on the streets of Kano would take thier word for it and take thier kids to be vaccinated. That probably comes around to ur point of Ignorance. They just do what they are told without questioning or without seeking explanations.

4 Him:

haba, polio affects mainly children.
If it were just a case of "God's mercies" then why hasnt that mercy been extended up north?

Again, please note . . . these are VACCINES not DRUGS . . . there is a huge difference between the two.
A drug treats a disease, a vaccine DOES NOT treat a disease but sensitizes the immune system to recognise a specific antigen. Immune memory from vaccines last a lifetime. That is why you don't get chicken pox twice.

Sorry, the last time I checked. . . vaccinations are drugs/medication used to boost the immunity system. . .ma area of specialty remember?   I know I am an olodo to you so let me give you proof!

Vaccines are medications that are designed to stimulate the body's immune system to generate a response that will protect the individual from disease by the pathogen in question. The first vaccination was performed by Edward Jenner who had noticed that dairy maids who had had cowpox infection (Vacca = cow in Latin) did not succumb to the deadly smallpox infection that was claiming many lives at the time.

http://www.malaria-vaccines.org.uk/2.shtml

Go and google it! Simple!

What great insight into the efficacy of the polio vaccines do these Northern clerics possess that the entire world lacks?

They think we are talking of making Suya and defiling little girls,bloody twats! This same polio vaccine has been utilised successfully throughout the world in nations ranging from India to Egypt and some degenerate, paraphiliac Northern clerics think they know best.

4 Him:

Madam, you don't boycott vaccines because of failed drug trials . . . like someone suggested, what was the alternative that the northern governments provided beyond continuing to be the reservoir of the world's cases of the polio virus?

You are missing the point. . . you need to look at the Nigerian environment and what is responsible for all this nonsense. I am not saying people should boycott the vaccination excercises. . .I would not blame them if they do. People are suspicious and if you do not educate them and reassure them that you can be trusted. . .I don't think they would let you inject them with eternal life!!!!!

4 Play:

What great insight into the efficacy of the polio vaccines do these Northern clerics possess that the entire world lacks?

I dont think they are questioning the efficacy but they are definitely questioning the source