| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Muslim parents deny polio drops to male kids |
| 2006-05-29 |
| KENDRAPARA The extended pulse polio immunisation drive has brought to the fore an exceedingly disturbing trend of ‘gender bias’ prevalent in a remote and predominantly Muslim inhabited village in Kendrapara district. After a sizeable chunk of parents in Tendakuda village under Patkura police limits skipped the 21 May mass immunisation campaign and refused to let their children be administered with oral drops, a door-to-door campaign to cover the left-out children is presently underway. But the exercise has brought in fresh problems with shocking reports of parents protecting the male children from immunisation. “After much coaxing and persuasion, we immunised some left-out girl children. But the parental attitude was defiant as far as immunising the male progeny was concerned, said an officer of family welfare wing of the District Headquarters Hospital. The belief that vaccine would turn the children impotent once they grow up still holds its sway in the village though many have realised the folly after an awareness campaign was carried out in the past three days. The riverside Tendakuda is a typical village with more than two third of its residents being from the minority community. Paradoxically, the Muslim families scared of oral doses for children are financially well off with quite a few adult male members making their way to Gulf countries. “Initially our attempts failed with many defiantly saying no to polio drops. Later, some of them relented. But they agreed to let their daughters be given oral doses,” narrated an official. The idea was to protect the male child from possible impotency factor. Of course, the left-out male children were covered. But girls outnumbered the boys. The immunisation campaign would go on for few more days and we are trying to scale down the number of left-out children,” said the officials. A total of 234 children from 0-5 age-group have so far been administered the oral polio doses. Still, over a hundred infants have gone uncovered. Tendakuda is a large village with a population of over 5,000. “We are visibly worried over these developments because of the fact that superstitions on polio drops still reign supreme in the village. Many believe that the growing up process of the children would be retarded by the oral drop, while other feel it will lead to impotency.” |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #13 No, I still have my hair... |
| Posted by: Hupitle Whomosing6517 2006-05-29 22:21 |
| #12 HW - you know your memory is the second thing to go.... (as for the first.... think about it....) |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-05-29 21:56 |
| #11 I thought it made their penises fall off or disappear. My memory must be going. |
| Posted by: Hupitle Whomosing6517 2006-05-29 20:54 |
| #10 All vaccinations are a plot against Muslims. Antibiotics and antiseptics and anaesthetics too. Food and clean water too. Pass the word. |
| Posted by: Darrell 2006-05-29 20:49 |
| #9 Of course what they ain't telling em vaccinating those useless girls still can make a difference, from sabin.org " The short-term shedding of vaccine virus in the stools of recently immunized children means that in areas where hygiene and sanitation are poor – and the incidence of polio is likely to be highest – immunization with OPV can result in the ‘passive’ immunization of adults or unvaccinated children within close contact of the vaccinated “shedder”. As discussed above, the unique ability of OPV to induce intestinal, local immunity is probably responsible for the extraordinary effect of OPV mass campaigns in interrupting wild poliovirus transmission. Due to these advantages, OPV remains the vaccine of choice for the eradication of polio, which would not be feasible with inactivated polio vaccine (IPV)." |
| Posted by: bruce 2006-05-29 20:49 |
| #8 smallpox, jenner, 1790, zoonosis, So deadly that, In China children were not named till they had survived the disease. In effect we could erradicate this disease from the planet but muslim fear & stupidity has prevented that, or at least delayed it by a generation. |
| Posted by: pihkalbadger 2006-05-29 15:09 |
| #7 So the answer is to keep immunizing our kids to protect them against what the idiots are allowing to happen to their kids. *Shrug* That's an acceptable short-term choice. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-05-29 13:15 |
| #6 #5 -- I don't think that can be right. For example, according to the UNICEF site, the last case of polio in Europe was in 1998. If polio existed "in nature" (in, say, water fowl, like for influenza) apart from people, some unvaccinated people would still be catching it. UNICEF further states: "Importations of poliovirus from endemic to polio-free areas threaten to derail efforts to contain the virus. In the 2002-2003 period, for the first time in history, more countries suffered polio cases due to importations than were themselves endemic for the disease." So, not only are reservoirs like this a risk to other areas, they have become the principal risk, with importations now exceeding endemic cases. I've checked other sites and this information is consistent with what they have rather than eccentric. |
| Posted by: Odysseus 2006-05-29 10:59 |
| #5 #4 - I believe polio virus can (and does, at least in 3d-world countries) exist in nature - unlike smallpox, which existed only in people. As long as people in western countries keep getting vaccinated, these idiots aren't a threat to us - at least not from the polio perspective. From the allen-told-us-to-kill-you-all perspective, however.... |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-05-29 10:42 |
| #4 Unfortunately, they'd become a reservoir for the disease hindering efforts to wipe it out internationally. So the penalty for the stupidity and ignorance would not fall solely on themselves as in a better Darwin Award situation. |
| Posted by: Odysseus 2006-05-29 10:13 |
| #3 Apparently they never heard of Viagra, either. This whole district is trying to nominate themselves for the Darwin Award. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2006-05-29 08:10 |
| #2 And we should be worried or feel concerned about this because...? |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-05-29 07:27 |
| #1 Think of it as Evolution in action. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-05-29 07:22 |