The rhetoric of political leaders about “the similarities” between developing countries like Nigeria and India finds a chilling endorsement in a problem surrounding polio immunisation drive in Nigeria. Indian health workers, especially in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, would find a note of familiarity here.Nigeria accounts for more than half of the polio-affected children in the world today. Though the disease is confined mostly to the eight northern states of the country, matters have been made worse by a recent admission by the World Health Organisation (WHO). On October 10, the WHO admitted that the country is facing a rare outbreak of vaccine-derived polio that is threatening to undo years of effort in convincing locals that vaccine is a must and not a “conspiracy”. It said 69 such cases have been reported from the northern part of the country.The WHO said the outbreak occurred when some of those who received the vaccine excreted a mutated strain of the virus, which ended up infecting those who had not received the vaccine. The answer, maintains the WHO, is more immunisations. But the agency also fears that this could make the already sceptical population of Nigeria more wary of the vaccine.Like in India, Nigeria also witnessed a resistance to polio vaccine, especially in the northern parts. The drops were branded a part of “western conspiracy” to sterilise African women. When local Islamic clerics joined the chorus, it became a major impediment for health workers there. In 2002, Islamic clerics in north Nigeria went on to quote a case in which a drug trial in 1996 killed six children and left 200 with brain damage to support their argument.At Nigeria’s biggest referral hospital, the Abuja National Hospital, Chief Health Officer in the Immunisation Department Dr Nwakanma Felicia witnesses 100 to 400 newborns receive immunisation drops each day. “We see posters put up, and several newborns clinging to their mothers who patiently queue up to ensure their children receive the BCG, DPT, Polio, Hepatitis B, Measles and yellow fever vaccines. But, deep in rural Nigeria, it is different,” said Felicia.“We have had to face an uphill task to convince people that the vaccine is not a western conspiracy. The Director General of the programme here led an enlightenment programme through posters, TV campaigns and direct contact. She even invited manufacturers from Geneva and India to explain to health officers what the vaccines contain, so that they can take the message to all the provinces and villages,” said Felicia. Felicia says there was a problem, a few years ago, with a kind of sanitary pad which was distributed here that has hardened the views that “western countries are trying to depopulate Africa”. However, she adds that polio cases have been steadily going down due to the efforts made by Nigerian health authorities.Bello, a nurse at the same hospital, said: “Since the middle of last year, plenty has been done for traditional communities by making them interact with health officials and vaccine manufacturers to help dispel the fears.”Nigeria’s fight against this conspiracy theory regarding “western” medicine suffered a setback after the WHO admission in October about the unique problem of vaccine-induced polio. However, number of polio cases have come down this year in comparison to last year. Now, often polio victims accompany immunisation teams to demonstrate the risks of dodging immunisation.
