Nigerian officials try to contain measles

[Book Lover]

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/30/nigerian_officials_try_to_contain_measles/8384/

ABUJA, Nigeria, March 30 (UPI) -- Nigerian health officials have opened treatment centers to cope with a measles epidemic that has claimed 165 lives in the past three months.

Officials noted the death toll from the outbreak, which infected more than 3,000 people, could rise as they fear many cases go unreported throughout the country, Voice of America reported.

Fundamentalist Islamic clerics have called for a boycott against measles vaccinations in Nigeria saying the immunization was a plot by Western countries to make Muslim girls infertile.

As a result, health officials say more than 95 percent of the children infected by the disease were not immunized.

<final para at link>

[varkam]

1. Well, at least they don't have autism.

:eyes:

K&R

[xchrom]

2. kick

[trotsky]

3. Strange how the reasons why these clerics opposed vaccination

have the same scientific and factual basis as the ones used by anti-vaxers here. I.e., NONE.

[mzmolly]

4. I wonder if this played a role in any concerns?

"Vaccine-linked polio hits Nigeria"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7037462.stm

However, given Nigeria recently had the largest measles vaccination campaign in all of Africa, I find it odd that 95% of these children were not supposedly "covered"? That said, if these children were too young to be up to date on the vaccine or if they didn't have proper documentation indicating up to date vaccination status, they are officially considered "un-vaccinated", so I'll await more extensive info.

Also, we've had measles outbreaks in a highly vaccinated populations but this doesn't generally make the news unless we can blame some kid who just traveled to Europe or something.

.....................................................................................................

"An outbreak of measles occurred in a high school with a documented vaccination level of 98 per cent."

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1646939

"The school's 1,873 students had a pre-outbreak vaccination level of 99.7% by school records."

http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/129/1/173

"Of the 663 students in the school, - (94.9%) had received 2 doses..."

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/116/6/1287

And so on.

......................................................................................................