Polio
Vaccine: A Response to Dan Halilu By Dr
Aminu Magashi , Community Health and Research Initiative (CHR), Kano ,
Nigeria healthinteractive@hotmail.com I have to
suspend the series of write ups that I had earlier commenced last week
in order to comment on the cacophony of voices in the air, particularly
in Northern Nigeria, over polio eradication which is more or less the
most controversial health project in that region. In his
article titled 'Polio Vaccine, Kaduna Flood, ET Al: The Wages of
Stupidity,' by Ibrahim Dan Halilu posted at Gamji Web Site last week, he
made an assertion that a serious reengineering and reorientation is
needed for Nigerians, especially those in the northern part of the
country, in order to be salvaged from the grievous consequences of the
stupidity of the so called well informed folks. My piece
today is not a rejoinder but an attempt to disabuse the minds of Dan
Halilu and any other person and group of individuals, that share the
same belief, pessimism and myopic thinking, to the effect that just
because some religious non governmental organizations have called for
the suspension of polio eradication, it is synonymous with future
political, socio economic backwardness and capable of generating serious
health hazards. Both the
recent antagonists (Jamaatul Nasril Islam, JNI and Supreme Council For
Sharia Implementation in Nigeria, SCSN ) and the protagonists of polio
eradication ( WHO, UNICEF, Rotary International, USAID, CDC, Ministry of
Health, NPI ) and all other persons that fall under sympathizers of both
groups, are just crying over a mountain where there is a mole hill, and
the approach is window dressing and a strange dance at the periphery, as
to what actually instigates the controversy and sincere way forward
towards sustaining hitch free exercises and prevention of future
occurrence. Whenever our
page dedicates even just a paragraph of an article to look at issues
related to polio eradication and comment accordingly, such remark is
viewed as uncalled for and a conservative stand, and it is normally
accompanied by insultive and abusive mails by some section of our
readers, as if the whole global agenda is a personal matter. I have said
before and will repeat again that polio myelitis and wild polio virus is
existing, living with us and needs the attention of all concerned
individuals to help in eradicating such problem, but the fact will
always remain that among the childhood killer diseases and other
children problem, it is not a priority problem that requires all the
magnanimous attention and resources committed to it alone. It is such a
blatant truth and inherent lack of priority and understanding of African
problems by the international donor agencies that has culminated in the
controversy that we are witnessing currently. And unless such agencies
are willing to make a U - turn and appraise themselves with the actual
needs of Africa, I have to regrettably say, Africa and health
development will be at parallel line. It is such
misplacement of priority that till today after launching Roll Back
Malaria some 41 months ago, the funders and initiators of the project (
WHO, UNICEF, WORLD BANK, UNDP ) are yet to achieve anything positive on
the battle field, apart from the provision of insecticide treated
mosquito nets that is neither available, affordable nor accessible to
the common man. In a
document titled "Master Plan of Operation, a country agreement
between UNICEF and Federal Government of Nigeria between 2002 and 2007
on page 32, where the justification of entering such agreement is
adequately covered, among such is the child hood killer diseases, and 22
% of all child mortalities in Nigeria is attributed to them. Among such
diseases, measles and meningitis carry the highest percentage, followed
by tuberculosis, pertusis, diphtheria and tetanus. It may interest the
likes of Dan Halilu to know that polio carries the least percentage. It
is very negligible to the extent that the document has ignored
allocating any percentage to it. I believe practically based on what is
seen at the government hospitals, that assertion is quite acceptable. Logically
any meaningful person will assume that UNICEF and other stakeholders
will channel resources and finances towards ensuring that a measles and
meningitis free environment prevails. At the battle field, it is
absolute neglect on all issues related to meningitis and measles. At the
community level, parents and all concerned individuals are witnessing on
a daily basis, how meningitis and measles are eliminating future youths
and leaders of tomorrow. When children are taken to hospitals for
routine immunization against such diseases, the story is either no
allocation or the drug is not adequate to go round. On the
contrary, the other disease, polio that is very rare. Even before the
commencement of polio eradication in 1988, a door to door approach is
being marshaled out by the mentioned stakeholders to eradicate it by all
means. If this double standard will not cause suspicion and controversy,
then I believe nothing will lead to such. When a comparison is made on
their complication, polio and measles and meningitis on one side, in
case of polio, we see a crippled child. Measles causes blindness,
malnutrition and untimely death. Meningitis leads to epilepsy, cerebral
palsy, body rigidity, abnormal posture, neurological defect, mental
retardation, as well as convulsion and untimely death. As I said
earlier, I am not writing a rejoinder, I wish to conclude that the
international donor agencies will be appreciated more in Northern
Nigeria, and other regions of the country and Africa at large, if they
go back to the drawing board, reassess their programmes and involve
beneficiaries of projects at all stages of implementation, starting from
the actual designing up to evaluation. It will save them a lot of
headache than to be touring traditional palaces and convening
sensitization meetings with the media, trying to woo them to their side
to continue the so called polio eradication. On the part
of the religious NGOs and other polio antagonists, we expect their
campaign not to be a suspension of polio eradication, but to work with
all interested stakeholders towards proper, sincere, people oriented
advocacy, so that all childhood killer diseases will assume their
rightful position and the attention they deserve. |