Polio vaccinations resume in Kano, Nigeria

Muslim leaders of a northern Nigerian state have agreed to allow polio vaccinations to continue, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

Muslim leaders of a northern Nigerian state have agreed to allow polio vaccinations to continue, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The leaders in Kano state had stopped the polio immunization campaign because of fears the WHO was a front for the United States and was using the oral vaccines to kill or harm Muslims.Kano’s decision to resume children’s vaccinations against polio comes at a critical time in the polio eradication program, the WHO said.”Sub-Saharan Africa is on the verge of the largest polio epidemic in recent history. Cases recorded in the region are five times that for the same period in 2003 (483 compared with 95), due to the outbreak originating from Kano and surrounding states,” the WHO said.As of Aug. 3, 2004, Nigeria reported 430 cases of polio and poses the highest risk to the end-2004 target for the global eradication of polio,, the report said(Source: United Press International, August 2004)