Spring Break
Mistrust aids polio epidemic in Nigeria
Issue date: 12/8/04 Section: Nation/World
KANO, Nigeria - Children with lifeless legs roll themselves up to intersections on wooden dollies, begging motorists for spare change. A workshop makes and sells dozens of colorful tricycles with hand cranks instead of foot pedals.
But even in a place where the ravages of polio are so visible, parents such as Binta Sani, 18, have repeatedly refused to allow their children to be protected against the disease.
Twice health workers came to her home, asking to place drops of polio vaccine on the tongue of her 2-year-old daughter, Hasfat. Twice Sani refused, saying she had heard that the vaccine causes sterility. On their third try last week, she finally relented, but only after a man she knew and trusted persuaded her that no harm would come to Hasfat.
"My neighbor convinced me that it was safe," Sani said, waiting inside her house while the man carried the screaming child out to receive the drops.
"He has lived here for years. He would never do anything to hurt my child."
Household by household, Nigerian health officials are making slow but steady headway against the misinformation and mistrust that for two years have sabotaged efforts to eradicate polio here. The crippling disease, wiped out years ago in much of the world, is spreading swiftly through Africa, and this ancient Muslim city in northern Nigeria is at the epicenter of the epidemic.
Over the past several months, a barrage of radio and television messages from doctors, clerics and politicians has begun to overcome popular rumors - fueled in part by rising anti-Americanism - that the imported vaccine contains anti-fertility drugs or the virus that causes AIDS.
As a result, officials said, the number of children being vaccinated is rising, and the number of rejections by fearful parents is dwindling. In July, a first round of immunizations reached 56 percent of the children younger than five in Kano. In September, a second round reached 65 percent. Last month, a third round reached 81 percent - close to the level needed to prevent the disease from taking root in a community. Each child needs three or four doses of vaccine to be fully protected.
But even in a place where the ravages of polio are so visible, parents such as Binta Sani, 18, have repeatedly refused to allow their children to be protected against the disease.
Twice health workers came to her home, asking to place drops of polio vaccine on the tongue of her 2-year-old daughter, Hasfat. Twice Sani refused, saying she had heard that the vaccine causes sterility. On their third try last week, she finally relented, but only after a man she knew and trusted persuaded her that no harm would come to Hasfat.
"My neighbor convinced me that it was safe," Sani said, waiting inside her house while the man carried the screaming child out to receive the drops.
"He has lived here for years. He would never do anything to hurt my child."
Household by household, Nigerian health officials are making slow but steady headway against the misinformation and mistrust that for two years have sabotaged efforts to eradicate polio here. The crippling disease, wiped out years ago in much of the world, is spreading swiftly through Africa, and this ancient Muslim city in northern Nigeria is at the epicenter of the epidemic.
Over the past several months, a barrage of radio and television messages from doctors, clerics and politicians has begun to overcome popular rumors - fueled in part by rising anti-Americanism - that the imported vaccine contains anti-fertility drugs or the virus that causes AIDS.
As a result, officials said, the number of children being vaccinated is rising, and the number of rejections by fearful parents is dwindling. In July, a first round of immunizations reached 56 percent of the children younger than five in Kano. In September, a second round reached 65 percent. Last month, a third round reached 81 percent - close to the level needed to prevent the disease from taking root in a community. Each child needs three or four doses of vaccine to be fully protected.