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The following article by Giraldus Cambrensis in Western Resistance Blog (published 2 Oct 2006) is no longer available since the blog has been shut down.

I provide it as a service to my readers:

Poliomyelitis has been successfully eradicated in developed countries, though there are an estimated 600,000 survivors still resident in the United States. In 1921, aged 39, Franklin D. Roosevelt developed polio which paralyzed his legs. The limbs gradually became atrophied. This caused him to be self-conscious. In most photographs taken since 1921, he is seen either seated, behind a desk or lectern or with his lower body hidden inside a car.

Polio has been with humanity from the beginnings of history. An Egyptian stele (pictured, above right) from between 1580 and 1350 B.C depicts an individual who has an atrophied leg, typical of polio deformation. And even in the 21st century, polio has no cure.

A vaccine has been in existence since 12 August 1955, due to the researches of Jonas Salk, and an oral vaccine developed by Albert B Sabin has been available since 1962.

Polio usually strikes children under the age of 5, and is highly contagious. It appears in three distinct forms. Many people become infected yet show no symptoms, and continue to spread the virus. Most symptoms present like mild flu, but for one in 200 people who become exposed, the virus attacks the spinal cord and brain, causing paralysis and sometimes death.

Polio is an enterovirus belonging to the family of Picornaviruses, which also include influenza . Though its worst obvious effects are found in its actions upon the nervous system, causing paralysis and subsequent atrophy of limbs, the polio virus multiplies in the gut. It is spread most commonly through feces, and in the developing world, poor sanitation and lack of a clean water supply can help the spread of the virus.

In 1998, when globally there were more than 350,000 new cases, the World Health Organization planned, optimistically, to eradicate the disease by 2000. A revised date of 2005 was set for the global eradication of the disease, which was also missed, even though there were only 1,831 new cases for that year.

In 2003, the year when there were the least new cases of polio, it was endemic in only six countries in the world - Nigeria, Niger, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.

Muslim Countries

Since 2003, the disease has started to reappear in countries in which it had formerly been eradicated. In the countries where it had been endemic, but numbers of cases had been decreasing, incidences began to rise. The vast majority of cases were appearing in Muslim countries and communities.

Indonesia had eradicated the virus in 1995, yet last March, it became the 16th country to succumb once again to the virus. An 18 month old boy in the village of Banten, Sukabhumi province in West Java, became paralyzed on March 13. The child had a strain of the virus which was the same as one which had derived from northern Nigeria, stated Dr David L. Heymann, who was the WHO official charged with global eradication.

The virus appeared to have been brought to Indonesia from Saudi Arabia, via Mecca and the Haj pilgrimage. The virus was 99.2% similar to a strain from Saudi Arabia, and 99.1% similar to a strain from Sudan.

In April, ground researches found that though the child's family had not been on the Haj, other families in the village had individuals who had gone to Saudi Arabia as guest workers or as Haj pilgrims.

By July 5 2005, there were 100 cases of polio in Indonesia. The first case from the island of Sumatra had been found at the end of June.

On July 22 it was announced that there were 155 cases of the illness in Indonesia. By the end of August 2005, there were 225 cases. Though the government was investing $21.7 million in an attempt to vaccinate 24 million children, there was resistance to vaccination from some quarters.

Some people were saying that the vaccine could harm their children, but others maintained that vaccination violated Islamic laws. Similar notions had been expressed in West Africa in 2003 by Muslim clerics, myths which led directly to the rise of polio cases globally.

Fortunately for Indonesia, the campaigns of vaccinating most vulnerable people have stopped further spread, with the last new case being reported this year.

The total of new Indonesian cases in 2005 reached 349, but there have been only two new cases this year. The last known case of polio in Indonesia was reported on February 20, 2006.

Epidemics

In 2005, new cases appeared in Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia, Angola, Mali, Cameroon, Chad and Eritrea, countries which had previously rid themselves of the virus.

This year, cases of polio have increased dramatically, and mostly in Muslim communities. In Afghanistan, for example, there were only 4 cases of polio recorded in the period January to September, 2005. The total number of cases in 2005 had been 9. This year, IRIN reported that by September 5, there had been 26 new confirmed cases in 2006.

The reasons for the spread of the virus in Afghanistan appears to stem from fighting by Taliban, preventing health workers from having consistent access to communities. Almost all of the cases of polio this year have presented in the south, in the provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Urozgan and Zabul. These provinces are located in the south of the country, where fighting against coalition troops is the strongest. Since the start of 2005, there have been a total of 30 attacks upon health workers.

Globally, up until September 26 this year, there were 1306 cases of polio. In the same period in 2005, there were 1273.

In non-endemic countries, there has been dramatic improvement, with only 101 new cases this year, compared to 767 cases from January to late September in 2005.

In February 2005, Egypt and Niger announced that they were polio free. Egypt had embarked on a massive campaign of vaccination, and so far this has proved successful. Niger, unfortunately was not as free as it had thought. There were 10 cases this year, with the last being found in July.

In countries where polio has been endemic, the figures have more than doubled. This year there were 1205 new cases in endemic countries, while in the same period in 2005 there had been 506.

Last year there were no cases of polio in Bangladesh, Nepal or the Democratic Republic of Congo, while this year there have been respectively thirteen, two and seven cases.

There were no cases of polio in Namibia last year, but so far this year there have been 20 cases. There had been no cases in Namibia for more than a decade.

Yemen reported a sharp increase in polio cases last year, with 40 new cases between January and May. By the end of the year there had been 470 cases. This year there has been only one reported case, which happened on February 2.

Last July polio returned to Somalia, where it had previously been eradicated. There have been more than 200 children afflicted with the condition since then. The latest case was reported in mid-September this year.

The Muslim Myths

The problem which caused the polio virus to spread throughout the West African nations of Niger and Nigeria was due to Muslim clerics. In July 2003, the Supreme Council for Sharia in Nigeria (SCSN), and the State Council of Imams and Ulama in Kaduna state said in a joint statement that they found the Nigerian government's motives for vaccination suspicious.

The document was signed by Sheik Zubairu Sirajo of SCSN and Sheik T. Suleiman of the Council of Ulamas.

Their statement, effectively a fatwa, said that Muslims had to be "wary of the polio vaccination being aggressively and religiously pursued....because of its potential dangers." They told reporters that they had found evidence that the polio vaccine was designed to make children sterile and to control population growth.

In Kano state, another of the Sharia states in the north of Nigeria, the vaccination program had been attacked by Datti Ahmed. He is the head of the Kano state Sharia Supreme Council. In July 2003, he had been the first to announce that the vaccine was part of a Western conspiracy. He said that the United States had deliberately contaminated the vaccines to reduce the Muslim population. He also said that the vaccines contained the HIV virus.

His comments led to the government of Kano state to stop immunization programs, soon followed by Kaduna and Zamfara state. In Januay 2004, the Nigerian health minister, Eyitayo Lambo, announced that his government was to resume the vaccination program. This was refused by state governors.

Even the politically correct BBC admitted that the Muslim clerics were responsible for the resurgence of polio in Nigeria.

Dr Heymann of the WHO admits that concerns in Nigeria about the virus may be connected with the tragic deaths of 11 Nigerian children in 1996. These happened during tests of an experimental meningitis drug by the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Sadly most of the Muslim leaders in the nine northern states where most of Nigeria's cases have happened have only ever studied the Koran. They have no scientific education, and are hardly qualified to make critical scientific analysis of data.

The results of the Muslim leaders' irresponsible statements have been catastrophic. By July 2004 three quarters of the world's cases of polio were happening in Nigeria, mainly in the northern sharia states. There were 257 cases in Nigeria. By then, Kano's state governor, Ibrhaim Shekarau, announced that tests had proved the vaccine was safe. But Nafiu Baba Ahmed, secretary general of the Kano state Sharia Supreme Council disputed the findings.

Ahmed said: "We believe that the Kano State government was forced into submission due to pressure and propaganda from the West. It's a blatant lie that the substances found in the vaccine are too insignificant to cause harm. Many a time a drug will be certified as safe but after some years will be withdrawn after a lot of damage had been done."

The damage had been done, but the effects were as a result of the Muslim clerics in northern Nigeria, and their anti-Western anti-American paranoia and bigotry. With genetic profiling of virus strains, the stark truth is that at least eighteen countries where polio had disappeared became reinfected with the Nigerian strain.

In 2005, Saudi Arabia finally took action which may have helped to reduce the spread of polio throughout the Muslim world. The WHO announced on August 19 that Saudi Arabia had ruled that all young visitors from countries with polio would have to show documentary proof that they had been vaccinated. Those who could not produce such documentation would be vaccinated by the Saudi health authorities.

A report by IRIN (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) from August 30 this year reports that finally in the northern states of Nigeria people are gradually allowing their children to be immunized.

But there is still a problem in Nigeria, with 70% of the world's total of polio cases this year happening in this nation. The vast majority of the 685 Nigerian cases are taking place in the northern sharia-ruled states of Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Zamfara.

Sadly, Nigeria is not alone in having Muslim clerics spreading their baseless rumours and disinformation camaigns.

The Indian Subcontinent

India is now undergoing problems with polio, despite national commitments to work with WHO to eradicate the illness. It is the only one of the previous six countries where polio has been considered endemic which is not predominantly Muslim. However, it is in communities with high numbers of Muslims that polio has been traditionally concentrated.

And it is in these communities that Muslim clerics are still preventing vaccination programs from taking place. The Washington Post of September 13 states that nearly all of the 254 cases of polio which have been recorded between January 1 and September 1 this year have taken place in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Of these, 69% of the cases were found in Muslim families. In 2005, there were only 29 cases of polio in Uttar Pradesh.

Dr. Mukesh Sharma said: "Health workers are beaten and denied entry in Muslim dominated areas which has adversely affected the anti-polio drive."

Muslim leaders are now urging their congregations to have their young children vaccinated. Both Shia and Sunni clerics have become involved in the campaign.

According to the International Herald Tribune from August 1, 2006, India is now rapidly becoming an exporter of the polio virus. Michael Galway of the Unicef polio campaign, stated: "People live really grim lives here and they get angry when officials come back to their house every six weeks with a polio vaccine when what they really want is electricity, water, sanitation and better health care." He said that in 2002 villagers in Uttar Pradesh would regularly throw stones at the polio vaccination teams.

Galway said: "But some people are still misinformed and believe, for example, that the vaccine may cause impotence, so they decide not to vaccinate their children. We have to tackle this."

It has been suggested that some fears of the polio vaccine stemmed from misreadings of a controversial book, which was published in 1999. This tome, entitled "The River", by Edward Hooper suggested that AIDS derived from a polio vaccine that had been grown in a culture of cells from chimpanzees infected with SIV, the simian relative of AIDS.

VOA News from September 19 reported that the same rumors which had thrived in Nigeria were still being held in some village communities in Uttar Pradesh, i.e. that the vaccine was designed to make children sterile and thus reduce the Muslim population.

The tragedy of polio is that it could be eradicated, and it is cheap to administer, and easy to take. Most vaccinations in the developing world involve a couple of drops of the Sabin vaccine, sometimes placed on a sugar cube.

And though Muslim clerics have used their own hysteria to attack the "Western" vaccination campaigns, it is mostly in the Muslim world that polio is currently proliferating. And the "evil West" which is said to be trying to sterilize Muslim infants is carrying most of the burden of the cost.

In 2005 it was reported that of the $4 billion dollars which had been spent on eradication of polio since 1998, only $3.5 million, less than 1% had been donated by Muslim countries, even though 96% of cases were happening in Muslim nations.

The issue of poliomyelitis is not something to be used to score political points. What has prevented the disease from being eradicated is not Muslim niggardliness, but Muslim bigotry. And those who develop polio, a preventable illness, are destined to have their lives blighted.

Muslim leaders can think what they want, but few are scientists. When Muslim leaders have spread disinformation, they have helped polio to spread. It need not be this way. In 2004, the grand mufti of Egypt and senior figures at Al-Azhar University issued fatwas which urged people to take the vaccine. And finally, for the very first time since 1350 B.C, when polio was first illustrated in Egypt, polio no longer can be found in Egypt. With a little effort, and a little willpower, polio could vanish from the world altogether. And no longer will small children, and adults, be forced to cope with shrunken limbs and shrunken futures.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 2, 2006 12:54 AM