At the same time that some countries are complaining that the polio vaccine is dangerous, the World Health Organization announced in January that new cases of polio had been discovered in two African countries where WHO had previously labeled the disease as eradicated.
Polio cases were discovered in both Benin and Cameroon in early January, apparently having spread from Nigeria. Nigeria still experiences about 300 cases of polio annually and Muslim leaders in northern Nigeria have led a local fight against the polio vaccine saying it contains hormones that are used to sterilize girls.
Sources:
West Africa Polio Cases a Setback for WHO’s Eradication Plan. UN Wire, January 12, 2004.
UN says polio is spreading to countries where it had been eradicated. Press Release, United Nations, January 9, 2004.
The WHO Reports Polio Setback by Brian Carnell, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
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