Saturday, July 21, 2007

How did the Pakistani man get polio?

Radical Islamic clerics in northern Pakistan have been pushing the idea that vaccinations for diseases is a Western plot to poison Moslem children. This particular fantasy has been rattling around for nearly a decade, and has prevented the UN from wiping out polio. Like small pox (which was wiped out in the 1970s), once there are no people with polio, the disease is gone for good (it can only survive in a human host). The Islamic clerics urging parents not to vaccinate their children against polio, provide the disease with hosts, and keep it going. Last year, 24,000 children were not vaccinated in northern Pakistan because of this paranoid fantasy. As a result, at least 39 cases of polio were confirmed last year. The victims (usually children) either die, or are crippled for life. In 2005, there were 28 cases. When confronted by angry parents, the clerics say that it's "God's will" that the kid is dead or crippled from polio. Most Moslem parents accept that, because Islam means, literally, "submission."

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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:44 PM

    The cause of polio is an enterovirus known as the poliovirus

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  2. Anonymous12:24 AM

    Why did the chicken cross the road?

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  3. Anonymous2:35 PM

    وعلى الصعيد الميداني تبقى حكومة نوري المالكي عاجزة عن الوفاء بالتزاماتها تجاه الإستراتيجية الجديدة بعد أن فشلت في الوصول لأرضية مشتركة بين الفصائل العراقية من شأنها تحقيق أي تقدم على الصعيد السياسي، وظل الاقتتال الطائفي هو اللغة المسيطرة على الشارع العراقي، وفي هذا الإطار نظم معهد أمريكان انتربريز في واشنطن

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