Kano state resumes polio vaccinations after 10-month ban

The government of Kano state in northern Nigeria resumed polio vaccinations at the weekend after a 10-month ban which led to the disease spreading back to several other countries in Africa. State Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, who had echoed the doubts voiced by some Muslim clerics about the safety of the vaccine, launched a new vaccination campaign on Saturday by personally administering the oral drops to children in the village of Takai, 80 km east of Kano city. The UN World Health Organisation (WHO), which is aiming to eradicate polio worldwide by the end of 2005, heaved a sigh of relief as the Kano state government began a four-day operation to vaccinate about four million children under the age of five. Lee Jong Wook, the director-general of WHO, said: "The suspension of immunisation campaigns in Kano has put thousands of African children at risk of polio paralysis. The suspension has also resulted in the re-emergence of polio in countries which had been polio free. If the campaigns were not resumed in Kano, a 30-year US$3 billion effort involving 20 million people to eradicate polio would be in jeopardy." The authorities in Kano and two other states in northern Nigeria, suspended polio vaccinations in October last year following fears voiced by some Islamic clerics that the vaccine being used was unsafe. These critics alleged that the polio vaccine contained impurities that could cause infertility in women and even infect those immunised with the HIV virus and cancer. They presented the vaccination campaign as a Western Christian plot to try and reduce the Muslim population of Nigeria. Kaduna and Zamfara states resumed polio vaccinations earlier this year under heavy pressure from the Nigeria federal government and WHO. However, Kano state held out until last month, when a committee of scientists and medical experts appointed by the state government formally approved the use of a vaccine manufactured in Indonesia. In Kano city, the largest town in northern Nigeria, women veiled in traditional Muslim hijab headscarves, moved from house to house on Monday administering the oral vaccine to the children inside. Asma’u Mohammed a 28-year old health worker recruited for the exercise, told IRIN that the level of acceptance was better than she had experienced previously. “The people see us with less suspicion now. They accept the vaccination, although there are still a few who still resist,” she said. Bilkisu Tukur, 30-year old mother of seven children, who brought out her six month old baby to be immunized, said “I am grateful to Allah that my babies can now be protected against this disease. I had no problem with the vaccine, but before now my husband said we should not vaccinate them.” Kano is one of 12 states in northern Nigeria which has imposed Islamic Shariah law and state governor Shekarau said his government had proceeded prudently in line with Islamic teaching. “We suspended the immunisation to find out the truth about certain claims made about the vaccine. We did it in line with what the Koran says,” he told reporters. “We said we will not carry on with immunisation until we got specialists to prove us (that it was safe), just like the Koran enjoins us to find out from those who know before taking a decision.” Now that the vaccine had been cleared, Shekarau urged those undertaking the immunisation campaign to do the work thoroughly. According to the WHO, Kano's failure to vaccinate over the past year has led to the poliovirus prevalent in Northern Nigeria infecting people in 10 other African countries. The polio virus invades the nervous system and can cause paralysis of the limbs or even death. It is now considered endemic in just six countries: Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt. But Nigeria is the biggest single problem, accounting for three quarters of the 486 cases of polio reported worldwide during the first seven months of this year. A WHO spokesman in Geneva told IRIN by telephone that the number of polio cases in Nigeria had soared four-fold to 383 between January and July from just 90 during the same period last year.