Kano, Nigeria
Polio is making a comeback across Africa, world health officials said this week, and Nigeria is to blame. The crippling children’s disease was nearly eradicated on the continent thanks to an international vaccination effort. But starting last summer, several Muslim provinces in Nigeria refused to allow the vaccinations, claiming that they were intended to cause sterility. Now a polio strain once confined to Nigeria has cropped up across central Africa and even in southern Africa. “It is unforgivable to allow still more children to be paralyzed because of further delay and baseless rumors,” said Carol Bellamy, the head of UNICEF.
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