India Frees Itself of Polio

An anonymous reader writes "It's been three years since the last recorded polio case in India and health officials hope to officially certify India polio free in the next few weeks. 'Hamid Jafari, director of the WHO's polio-eradication campaign, says the agency's ambitious quest to stop all polio transmission by the end of 2014 is now within reach. If that is achieved, and no new cases crop up for three years, polio—like smallpox—will be officially banished from the planet. "India was one of the most important sources" from where the virus spread to other countries, said Dr. Jafari.'"

It is still a tough fight ahead

[crabel]

Current information on the fight against polio can be found here: http://www.polioeradication.org/Dataandmonitoring/Poliothisweek.aspx [polioeradication.org] While India is polio-free, the worldwide cases actually increased last year. Well, let's hope for the best, that the optimistic assessment of Dr. Jafari is true.

Meanwhile, in Syria...

[Y-Crate]

The WSJ:

There also have been recent outbreaks in the Horn of Africa and Syria, although there are signs that those cases will soon be mopped up.

NPR: [npr.org]

The World Health Organization has declared a polio emergency in Syria.

After being free of the crippling disease for more than a decade, Syria recorded 10 confirmed cases of polio in October. Now the outbreak has grown to 17 confirmed cases, the WHO said last week. And the virus has spread to four cities, including a war-torn suburb near the capital of Damascus.

The Syrian government has pledged to immunize all Syrian children under age 5. But wartime politics is getting in the way. And the outbreak is expected to grow.

"Actually, it is spreading quickly," says Dr. Mohammed Al Saad in Gaziantep, Turkey, near the northern border of Syria. There are now more than 60 suspected cases, he says, with new ones reported each day.

Not so fast !

[Anonymous Coward]

Next door to India, Polio is making a come back.

Same thing also happening in Nigeria, as well as in Mali.

The common thread in the three locations that is helping Polio making a revival is Islam.

Yes, Islam is helping to make Polio a permanent fixture to the human race.

In Pakistan, they actually KILL health workers trying to eradicate Polio. Same thing happen in Nigeria, where Boko Haram has threaten (and sometimes kill) people trying to stop the spread of Polio.

Re:Not so fast !

[viperidaenz]

Nothing to do with Al Quaeda
http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/cleric-says-polio-vaccination-unislamic-warns-of-jihad-against-docs/961503/ [indianexpress.com]

Re:Not so fast !

[rvw]

Yes, Islam is helping to make Polio a permanent fixture to the human race.

The former two catholic popes did similar stuff with condoms and HIV in Africa and South America. I hope this one has more common sense.

Re:Not so fast !

[shutdown -p now]

From TFA:

"Religious leaders were persuaded to join the effort. "The calls that went out to the Muslim faithful every Friday contained reminders to take children to the immunization booths," said Mr. Kapur of Rotary International. "These were the people initially most skeptical of the vaccines but, once convinced, they became our biggest agents of change."

So it's not Islam in general that's anti-polio. Indeed, you don't get those craziness in any Muslim culture with well-educated populace.

The people who are killing health workers administering vaccines in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are not just Muslims. They are Salafi, an extremely fundamentalist Muslim sect that espouses strict Koranic literalism and advocates for a return to the practices of the "original Islam" (which, basically, translates to society and culture frozen as it was in the times of Muhammad). Taliban, Boko Haram, al-Qaeda, Caucasus Emirate etc - these are all Salafi.

Re:Not so fast !

[Chrisq]

Do you have a source or are you are retard?

My god how far has the propaganda that Islam is as harmless as the women's institute gone. Surely you must have read about all the polio workers killed [aljazeera.com]?

Re:Not so fast !

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

One of the reasons for that was some IDIOT in the CIA apparently using a polio vaccination program as a cover for a covert operation in Pakistan.

It was actually hep-b vax and it was specifically intended to get info on bin laden in abbotobad. Not clear if it was helpful or not.

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/11/the_fake_vaccination_scheme_absent_from_the_bin_laden_hunt_debates/ [salon.com]

Re:Not so fast !

[Anonymous Coward]

From the article you linked:

After news emerged that the US' Central Intelligence Agency employed a doctor to run a fake hepatitis B vaccination programme in an effort to find Osama bin Laden, conspiracy theories about health workers' activities have abounded - such as claims that vaccinators mark houses to be targeted by US drones. Polio workers have been accused of being CIA operatives, and the campaign has suffered incalculable damage.

So, it's not simply "crazy Mooslim religionists" causing this --- it's the US and the West's history of undermining all trust in "helpful aid programs" by regularly using such things for nefarious ends. So, the people who sneak into your homes to target them for drone strikes want to stick needles in your kids --- surely, you'd trust them, because science, right? "Islam" isn't the main problem here with undermining trust in medical aid.