Religious decree endorses polio vaccinations

A prominent Muslim cleric issued a religious decree, or fatwa, this week advising parents to have their children immunised against polio. "We have verified the vaccines and we have found that vaccination campaigns are being undertaken with good intentions,” stated the religious pronouncement, a copy of which was obtained by IRIN. “So there is no objection to giving vaccines to children," it added. The decree was issued on 29 January by Mohammed Abdullah al-Emam, one of Yemen’s best-known Salafi clerics, who runs a religious centre in the town of Mabar, some 70 km south of the capital, Sana. Health officials have since reported that parents who had been sceptical about the immunisation drive were now “very cooperative”. A three-day campaign against polio was launched on 29 January, targeting about four million children nationwide. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Yemen accounted for 36 percent of the 1,310 cases of polio registered worldwide during the first nine months of 2005. Between April and November of last year, the health ministry confirmed a total of 473 polio cases, including six fatalities. The WHO declared the country to be polio-free in 1996. During earlier immunisation campaigns in 2005, many parents refused vaccinations for their children, believing that the shots could result in infertility. A number of local religious leaders had also cautioned parents that vaccinations were dangerous. Following al-Emam’s decree, however, health workers have noticed a sea change in popular attitudes. "People who previously refused vaccines for religious reasons welcomed health workers," said Mohammed al-Tam, a government health director in the Jahran district. "We’ve given a copy of the fatwa to every health worker in the area to convince parents that vaccines are not harmful," he said. Before issuing the pronouncement, al-Emam met a number of doctors and officials from the health ministry. “We explained that the purpose of the vaccines was only to protect our children from the fatal illness and nothing else," al-Tam added. Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that can paralyse a patient’s limbs in a matter of hours.