Polio Vaccination Dismissed as Devil's Work across Africa

This news article explores a communication challenge for public health teams that are seeking to meet polio eradication deadlines: rumours spreading through vulnerable African populations about the purpose and safety of the polio vaccine. It is suggested here that some Africans have held beliefs such as that the vaccine is a conspiracy to sterilise Nigerian girls, that it is a tool for devil worship, or that it spreads HIV. In Kano, Nigeria, in particular, these types of misconceptions were spurred when, in 2003, local politicians suspended polio vaccination for nearly a year because they believed the vaccine contained anti-fertility agents. Fears about the polio vaccine in rural Nigeria have apparently led some villagers to flee from their homes when polio vaccination teams arrive, or to try to trick health workers into believing that their children have been vaccinated.

One explanation for the communication breakdown, according to experts cited in the article, is the failure to establish or enforce informed consent standards in "the developing world" - with the consequence that health workers may not inform people about real (even if very rare) risks, such as paralysis by the live virus in the vaccine itself. Part of this failure to educate can be linked to communication constraints such as illiteracy and geographical remoteness. However, one ethicist quoted here stresses that these types of difficulties are no excuse and must somehow be overcome in order to respect community members' right to complete information.

The suggestion is that being transparent about adverse effects would spur trust and thus help to open up lines of communication that could effectively quell misunderstanding and rumour about other, false effects.