PHA-Exchange> 6 Nations to Intensify Polio Vaccinations

[Aviva]

From: Dr Rana Jawad Asghar <jawad at alumni.washington.edu>

6 Nations to Intensify Polio Vaccinations
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By Lawrence K. Altman
January 16, 2004

Health ministers from the six countries where polio is now
spreading said yesterday that they would intensify efforts to
immunize 250 million children against the crippling disease by
the end of this year.

If they succeed, they would move up the World Health Organiza-
tion's goal by one year.

The countries include Nigeria, where immunizations were halted
in recent weeks because some religious and political leaders in
Kano State said the vaccine would make girls infertile.

Nigeria has exported polio cases to at least six countries in
West Africa in recent months, the health agency has said, jeop-
ardizing efforts to have polio join smallpox as the only dis-
eases to be eliminated from the human population.

The other countries with endemic polio are Afghanistan, Egypt,
India, Niger and Pakistan.

A panel of experts appointed by the Nigerian government sent
the vaccine for testing to two independent laboratories, which
found no adulteration. The vaccine used in Nigeria is the same
one Unicef buys for all countries.