Explainer: why polio remains endemic in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria
Baku, December 26 (AZERTAC). A global multibillion dollar immunization campaign over the past few decades has made most of the world polio-free. But in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria the crippling disease remains endemic.
Despite a coordinated United Nations polio-prevention drive in all three countries, dozens of children become paralyzed and ultimately die from the highly infectious disease every year.
Political unrest, poor health infrastructure, and government negligence are among the reasons for the failure. But the cause analysts cite most often is opposition from religious militant groups.
In all three countries, the most afflicted regions are those where the government`s reach is weakest and the presence of Islamic militants is strongest. From the remote, mountainous villages along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to towns across northern Nigeria, insurgents have kidnapped, beaten, and assassinated vaccinators in a bid to stop local antipolio initiatives.
In justifying their resistance to the polio-prevention campaign, Taliban factions in Afghanistan and Pakistan - as well as Nigerian militant groups like Boko Haram - have claimed polio vaccinations are "un-Islamic" and an attempt to thwart the will of God.
In Afghanistan and Pakistan, Taliban factions have also called vaccinations a Western plot to sterilize Muslim populations. Hard-line clerics in Nigeria`s Kano state have issued similar warnings, saying the drugs distributed by the UN were laced with chemicals to make African girls infertile.
Polio vaccines used in the three countries are made in laboratories worldwide, including in the United States, making them a source of resentment for insurgents. Pakistani militant groups like the Tehreek-i-Taliban claim the vaccinations are made out of pig fat or have traces of alcohol, both of which are banned under Islam.
Some Islamic clerics have even issued fatwas saying that any person who became paralyzed or died from polio would be given the status of a "martyr" for refusing to be duped by a western conspiracy.
In Pakistan, such beliefs gained particular credence after it emerged that the CIA used a fake vaccination team headed by a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, to collect information about Osama bin Laden.
The Afghan government registered only 25 polio cases that year, but that figure tripled to 76 last year. Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed the Taliban, demanding that they allow teams of vaccinators to administer antipolio drops to children in areas under their control.
In Nigeria, attempts by Islamic extremists to ban a United Nations immunization campaign have resulted in the infection returning to eight previously polio-free countries in Africa, according to the UN.
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