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January 22, 2003

INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS

"Distrust Reopens the Door for Polio in India"

New York Times (www.nytimes.com) (01/19/03) P. A1; Waldman, Amy

Polio is re-emerging in India, after officials predicted that they could eliminate the disease there by the end of last year and after mass immunizations reduced cases from hundreds of thousands to just a few hundred per year.  Community leaders and government officials say that the reason for the resurgence is a rumor that the oral polio vaccine is part of a government population control scheme and causes sterility.  Dr. Bruce Aylward of the World Health Organization warns that reduced vaccinations will produce hundreds of thousands of cases again, not just a few, and India's deputy commissioner of child health, Dr. Sobhan Sarkar, notes that polio is being found in areas where it was previously absent.  The rumor seems to have more strength among the minority Muslim communities in India, and many Indians are still afraid of forced sterilization, which last took place in 1975.  Polio is emerging in Uttar Pradesh, which has many poor and uneducated people.

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