Minister of state for Health, Dr. Muhammed Ali Pate, yesterday said 98 percent of victims of polio and meningitis in the country are Muslims.Addressing Muslim leaders on the polio vaccine during the central council meeting of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), he said the diseases are prevalent among Muslim children because of the refusal of their parents to make them available during immunisation.
“The doubt raised in 2003 and 2004 (on vaccines) by people who don’t have scientific evidence are drawing us back,” he said.
“If people stop confusing parents to paralyse their children, we will not have polio cases again,” he added.
Declaring open the meeting, Kaduna state governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero said the survival of any group in the present global dynamics relies solely on the amount and quality of education available to it members.
The Minister should explain why the diseases affect only Moslems. Is balderdash to say that the diseases affect Moslems simply because they are defying vaccination. What are the causes of the diseases in the first infection?