Mick Hartley

From the BBC:

Polio could be wiped out in Nigeria – one of the world's last blackspots of the disease – thanks to an improved vaccine, research suggests.

An Imperial College London team found a recently introduced polio jab is four times more effective at protecting children than previous vaccines.

They say it could eradicate type 1 polio – the most common form – in Nigeria if it reaches enough children…

Nigeria is one of only four countries in the world where polio has yet to be eliminated, and 82% of global cases reported so far this year have been in the country.

Polio is highly infectious and it primarily affects children under five years of age. A small minority of infected people develop permanent paralysis, which can be fatal.

It's a reasonably lengthy article, so you'd think they'd make the effort to point out the real reason why polio is so prevalent in Nigeria, especially in the north west of the country. It's not a problem of the ineffectiveness of the vaccine: it's because Muslim leaders in Nigeria have campaigned against immunisation, on the grounds that it was part of a Western plot to make Muslims infertile.

Worth a mention, perhaps.