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Nigeria orders polio vaccine tests
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- Nigerian authorities said Wednesday polio vaccines recently administered in a nationwide campaign will undergo laboratory testing to calm fears the United States is using the immunization campaign to sow AIDS and sterility among Muslims. Vice President Abubakar Atiku ordered testing on the vaccines for agents that could spread HIV or sterility, adding that international, federal and state health authorities must work together to resolve "the various issues surrounding the analysis of the polio vaccines," Nigeria's state television reported. An official in Atiku's office, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the order. Health workers on Friday launched a drive to immunize 15 million African children at immediate risk of contracting polio -- an effort hampered in Nigeria by an assertion by Islamic radicals the vaccination drive is part of a U.S. plan to decimate the Muslim population by spreading AIDS and infertility. Datti Ahmed, a physician who also leads the self-styled Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria that has spearheaded the campaign against polio immunization, told The Associated Press he welcomed the decision. "We are partially happy the government has accepted the need to test and investigate the vaccines," said Ahmed. "But we're worried the people they're asking to do the tests are interested parties like UNICEF, who have been bringing the vaccines into Nigeria." Three predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria -- Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara -- have either delayed or refused permission for the vaccination drive, with Zamfara demanding proof the vaccine is safe. U.N. officials involved in the campaign say such proof has been repeatedly supplied. In other predominantly Muslim northern states where the immunization went ahead, large numbers of people still barred health officials from their homes. In Mafa, a town in northeast Borno State, one family set dogs on immunization officers that knocked on their front door, Nigerian officials said. Muslims and Christians in Nigeria's south have largely embraced the program. Polio usually infects children under the age of 5 through contaminated drinking water and attacks the central nervous system, causing paralysis, wasting muscles, deformation and sometimes death. Failure of previous vaccine initiatives in northern Nigeria have aided the disease's spread internationally, recently leading to the crippling of nearly a dozen children in at least four other West African nations -- Ghana, Togo, Niger and Burkina Faso -- according to the U.N. World Health Organization. International immunization campaigns have slashed the number of countries where the polio virus is still breeding to seven _ Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Niger and Somalia. Ninety-nine percent of all new polio cases in the world are in Nigeria, Pakistan and India. The Nigerian outbreak started in Kano state during the summer. Experts blame insufficient coverage during mass polio campaigns and routine treatment. In some areas, only 16 percent of children were immunized during a campaign last year. Nigerian Muslims have become increasingly suspicious of vaccine initiatives since 1996, when families in Kano accused New York-based Pfizer Inc. of using an experimental meningitis drug on patients without fully informing them of the risks. The company denied any wrongdoing in a subsequent U.S. federal lawsuit by 20 disabled Nigerians alleging to have taken part in the study. The case was dismissed, but a U.S. appeals court recently revived it. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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