From the UK Guardian:
The parents of 24,000 children in northern Pakistan refused to allow health workers to administer polio vaccinations last month, mostly due to rumours that the harmless vaccine was an American plot to sterilise innocent Muslim children.
The disinformation - spread by extremist clerics using mosque loudspeakers and illegal radio stations, and by word of mouth - has caused a sharp jump in polio cases in Pakistan and hit global efforts to eradicate the debilitating disease.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recorded 39 cases of polio in Pakistan in 2006, up from 28 in 2005. The disease is concentrated in North-West Frontier Province, where 60% of the refusals were attributed to "religious reasons."
Last week some creep threw a bomb in the Red Crescent office. Why did that happen?
More from the Guardian:
Some linked the attack to a fatwa issued in Dara Adam Khel, a lawless town famous for its gunsmiths, just before Christmas. A cleric named Mufti Khalid Shah declared a fatwa on employees of the UN, WHO and all other foreign organisations. "Killing their employees is in line with the teachings of jihad in Islam," said a notice.
However, the leaders of two Islamic parties issued a fatwa supporting the vaccinations, which is helping the efforts of the aid workers.
Polio remains endemic in just four nations: Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.
In 2003, there was an emergency polio vaccination effort in Nigeria after an outbreak there, as the BBC reported at the time:
But three predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria - Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara, have delayed or refused permission following opposition from influential Islamic leaders who allege the oral vaccination is unsafe and part of a secret US plan against Africa.
Stories like this belong on the front page of the New York Times.
Technorati tags: Nigeria Pakistan afghanistan India Islam muslim radical islam polio health care
No comments:
Post a Comment