Nigeria: Health of the Nation and Its Public Service

11 February 2013
opinion

The killing of nine health workers last Friday is a frightening twist in the crisis facing the Nigerian state. Their crime was that they were vaccinating children to save them from the risk of contracting the dangerous polio disease later in life. Polio had almost been eliminated in the world when it was revived due to a misguided campaign by some groups to stop the vaccination.

The result was that Nigeria became a leader among the three countries in the world that were threatening to re-introduce the epidemic. In 2012, Nigeria had 121 cases while Pakistan and Afghanistan had 58 and 37 cases respectively. Following last Friday's attack, all three countries now have incidents of the assassination of health workers engaged in vaccination exercises. These developments are creating conditions that will make the task of elimination polio extremely difficult.

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