Northern Nigeria was the location of half of all documented polio cases in 2003, but Muslim clerics have repeatedly inveighed against the
vaccine as an effort by Westerners to
sterilise young Nigerian Muslim girls. Another issue was the belief that the Polio vaccine caused AIDS. The national vaccination program was suspended in several states in August of 2003, and the disease nearly quintupled in frequency (119 cases in first quarter 2004, vs. 24 in 2003). By May 2004, polio was reported to have spread from there to several other African nations which had previously been declared polio-free.
Past installments of
Great Moments in Religious Thought and Action