Nigerian Polio Survivors Rally to Support Vaccines

KANO, Nigeria, Nov 9 (Reuters, edited) - About 1000 Nigerians disabled by polio staged a rally in the northern city of Kano on Wednesday to encourage parents to allow their children to be vaccinated against the disease. Riding hand-pedalled tricycles and boards on wheels, the polio survivors who included children and adults visited the Kano state governor and the emir to enlist their support ahead of a new round of intensive polio immunization. The state of Kano banned polio immunisations in late 2003 along with several other northern states after Muslim clerics said the vaccines were contaminated as part of a Western plot to render Muslims infertile or HIV positive. Vaccinations resumed after 10 months. The ban caused a spike in polio cases in Nigeria and the disease spread to 18 other countries, in a grave setback for the global campaign to eradicate polio. To read the article online.

 printer-friendly format