Radical Groups Promote Campaign Against Western Medicine In Nigeria.(Brief Article)

2001 JUN 27 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) --

There are signs that Nigeria's northern region is becoming increasingly vulnerable to annual epidemics of measles and meningitis amid widespread resistance to immunization by suspicious locals.

Taking advantage of strong anti-Western sentiments sweeping across the predominantly Muslim region since a number of states started implementing strict Islamic law over the past year and a half, some radical Muslims have launched a strong campaign against Western medicine, according to a June 5, 2001, report from U.N. Integrated Regional Information (IRIN).

The campaign, waged through anonymous messages recorded on audio cassettes in the local Hausa language, include allegations that Western countries have conspired to limit population growth in Africa by infecting people with HIV and sterilizing them under the guise of immunization. One result of this propaganda has been a significant drop in the level of immunization among people in the region, particularly in rural areas.

Local health officials and international humanitarian agencies involved in immunization against the polio virus, measles, and meningitis have reported being turned away from homes, especially in Kano, Jigawa, Sokoto, and Zamfara states.

"We have a situation where immunization levels in this state have dropped by up to a third so far this year," a senior official of the Kano State Ministry of Health told IRIN.

Coinciding with this widespread resistance of immunization has been a significant rise in the number of people affected by outbreaks of measles and meningitis. Cases of measles rose by 670% in Kano, the biggest city in northern Nigeria, in the first 21 weeks of 2001 compared to the same period in 2000, according to figures provided by the international medical charity, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors without Borders). According to MSF, 16,263 cases were recorded by its personnel at two hospitals in Kano and during a joint surveillance the non-governmental organization conducted with Kano's health ministry as against 2,111 cases for the corresponding period of last year.