Rumors impede vaccinations in some areas:
For Ramatu Garba, the polio vaccine is more curse than savior — part of an evil conspiracy hatched in the West to sterilize Nigerian girls.”“Allah used Muslim scientists to expose the Western plot of using polio vaccines to reduce our population,” said the 28-year-old Muslim food vendor in this northern Nigerian town. Each time health teams have tried to vaccinate her daughter, Garba has refused.
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In Nigeria, some mothers try to fool health workers into believing their children have been vaccinated by painting their children’s fingers with nail polish, an attempt to imitate the ink marks used in vaccine drives to record that a child has been immunized.In Pakistan, a petition was recently filed to the Peshawar High Court, asking the government to end the $167 million polio eradication program; it cited Nigerian documents that alleged the vaccine is contaminated with estrogen. In the past, polio vaccinators in Quetta have been stoned and chased out by angry locals.
And in Kenya, polio vaccination campaigns have been compromised by devil worship allegations: parents express fears that having their children open their mouths to receive the oral vaccine would result in their tongues being magically removed.