by NIKITA LALWANI
A patient received treatment for polio in January in New Delhi. PHOTO/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Global health experts long believed that India, with its massive population, poor sanitation and widespread poverty, would be the last country in the world to eradicate polio.
On Thursday, however, public-health officials are expected to certify that the South Asian nation is free of the infectious scourge, which has afflicted more than 8,500 Indians since 1998.
…
“It’s always important to find out who people trust,” said Heidi Larson, an anthropologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who tracks immunization programs. “The more health workers listen to and engage with locals, the more successful they are.”
…
In 2002, about 57% of polio cases countrywide were Muslim children; by 2004, that had risen to 62%. Muslims account for about 13% of India’s 1.2 billion people.
…
Among India’s Muslims, rumors were rampant.
Some believed the polio vaccine—which is delivered orally—contained pork, which Muslim religious rules say can’t be consumed. Others suspected a plot to sterilize or infect Muslim children.
The war in Iraq also made many poor Muslims deeply suspicious of the U.S. and health workers were sometimes seen as agents of Western drug companies or intelligence agencies.
Vaccination efforts in Pakistan and elsewhere remain hindered by this kind of distrust. But, unlike in India, health workers elsewhere also face violent opposition from militant groups and others.
On Monday, the bullet-riddled body of a female polio worker was found by a river in Peshawar in northwestern Pakistan.
The Wall Street Journal for more
(Thanks to reader)