Immunization Newsbriefs (c) Copyright Information Inc., Bethesda, MD. Brought to you by the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii). Visit NNii's new website at http://www.immunizationinfo.org.

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February 07, 2003

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"India Launches Massive Effort to Fight Polio"

Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) (02/06/03) P. D3; Naik, Gautam

A rise in polio cases in India has sparked an immunization campaign that targets 165 million children over six days; 1,556 new polio cases out of the 1,886 new cases reported worldwide occurred in India, with most of those cases located in India's northern state Uttar Pradesh.  The increase is due to the failure of health workers to visit about 15 percent of homes in the state and a rumor that the polio vaccine would cause impotence and is a form of population control engineered by the Hindu-dominated government against Muslims.  The $2 million campaign will begin Monday and involve 2.5 million volunteers and health workers and almost 200 million doses of the polio vaccine.

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