Allah ki Pukaar! Really?
Dr. Mohammed Ashfaque Memon
A pediatrician’s concern for the cause
of Polio vaccination in the country which is now being
besieged by ignorant lobbies in and out of religious
community circles in India.
As a pediatrician who has studied in an Urdu medium
school and junior college before joining medical college
I, by the grace of God, am in a unique position to read
books of different thoughts. It’s quite usual for me to
flip through my text books sometimes and many of the
Urdu books other times. Moreover it’s quite frequently
that I come across the teaching of Qur’an and sayings of
prophet Mohammed (PBUH) through my parents or the
mosques I attend for the purpose of prayers. While I
never came across something which contradicts the
established facts of modern science in Holy Qur’an or
authentic Hadith, its really regrettable to read
something laughable passed on to readers by various Urdu
books. The source in majority of the cases is, of
course, claimed to be Islam.
One such incident occurred with me recently. Though the
article was published in Feb-2007 issue of "Allah Ki
Pukaar," I came across it recently. The said book is
published from our national capital (Delhi).The article
was about polio vaccination. I was stunned to read the
said article because of not only its absurd claims about
the adverse effects of polio vaccine but also because it
carried references of western authors like Debbie
Brooklain and Jim Schumaker, etc. According to the
author of this article:
-
Polio vaccine may cause transmission of Simian Virus 40
which may cause Osteo sarcoma, Brain tuniours (tumours),
malignant mesoththliomas (mesotheliomas)!
-
Polio vaccine is a medical fraud!
-
Polio vaccine causes dysfunction of immune system which
ultimately leads to death!
-
Aids was transmitted to human beings deliberately with
the small pox vaccine the aim was to promote vulgarity
in the name of fighting AIDS!
-
If some one is getting his baby immunized against polio
vaccine then it’s very difficult for the child to be
safe from cancer!
The article was so disturbing for me as a pediatrician
that I decided to look into the allegation leveled
against polio vaccine. The answers I found are as
follows
It’s true that earlier polio vaccine may have been
contaminated with simian virus 40 but it was way more
than half a century back. In 1960 the Scientists came to
know about polio vaccine being contaminated with simian
virus 40 they, including those at the Public Health
Service’s (PHS) Division of Biological Standards (DBS),
developed a tissue culture procedure to detect SV40.
Once this procedure was developed, DBS notified
manufacturers that "..no lots of poliomyelitis vaccine
will be released in the absence of negative results of a
valid tissue culture test for SV40." This requirement
was later codified in regulations. (Statement of William
Egan, ph.d., Acting Director, office of vaccine research
and review center for biologics evaluation and research
food and drug administration)
Nothing can answer the allegation of polio vaccine being
a fraud because no specific allegation is made against
polio vaccine which can be specifically answered. But
even if for the sake of argument it is to be called a
fraud then it is the most wonderful fraud I have ever
come across in my life. Look at the statistics and you
will know. In the last 15 years, the number of cases of
polio worldwide has dropped spectacularly, going from
350,000 cases in 1988 when the Global Polio Eradication
Initiative began to 1, 940 in 2005 (data as of March 14,
2006).
Nothing can be far from truth than the claim that polio
vaccine causes dysfunction of immunity. As all of us
know very well that Oral Polio Vaccine causes production
of antibodies (antibodies provide defense mechanism by
which body fights invading bacterias and viruses)
against polio viruses so rather than causing dysfunction
of immune system it actually boosts the immune system.
According to Nelsons textbook of pediatrics" IPV elicits
higher IgG antibody titres but OPV also induces
significantly greater mucosal IgA immunity in oropharynx
(mouth) and GIT(intestines) that limits replication
(growth) of the wild polio viruses at these sites.
Now coming to most fascinating claim of deliberately
transmitting HIV virus with small pox vaccine. This was
the most difficult allegation leveled against the
practice of vaccination. It’s really sad that this
allegation is leveled against a vaccine that eradicated
the scourge of small pox from the world. It is difficult
to answer this allegation not due to the reason that it
has any substance in it but because it is totally
baseless. It is baseless to the point that I found no
reference to this kind of conspiracy theory even after
searching it thoroughly in Google, Wikipedia and
Cochrane database. Moreover it is interesting to note
that the most scientifically advanced nation on the face
of earth (USA) vaccinates its military personnel against
this vaccine even today.
Now coming to the last point that if someone gets his
baby immunized with polio vaccine then its very
difficult for the child to be safe from cancer! It again
comes out of the blue because there is no scientific
basis to claim anything of this kind. The concerns that
Polio vaccine could have been contaminated with simian
virus is already answered. Moreover even if for the sake
of argument it is accepted that there exist rarest of
the rare possibility of polio vaccine being contaminated
with simian virus 40 even then its not proved that it
may cause cancer. A large study in Sweden examined
cancer rates of 700, 000 individuals who had received
potentially contaminated polio vaccine as late as 1957;
the study again revealed no increased cancer incidence
between persons who received polio vaccines containing
SV40 and those who did not. (Olin P, Giesecke J (1998).
"Potential exposure to SV40 in polio vaccines used in
Sweden during 1957: no impact on cancer incidence rates
1960 to 1993". Dev Biol Stand 94: 227-33. PMID 9776244)
Having clarified the misconceptions about polio vaccine
I must point out towards the irony that the persons who
are going to be affected by this kind of malicious
propaganda against the practice of vaccination are the
ones who are least likely to be reading this article.
Nonetheless it is important to write about this for
three simple reasons
First, these answers may be used by various personnel
involved in polio immunization right from aganwadi
workers and supervisors of PHC to medical officers etc.
You can not expect a mother who thinks that polio
vaccine can cause cancer, AIDS and impotency to immunize
her child unless you have a readymade satisfactory
answer to her doubts.
Second, this should be an eye opener for at least
educated persons of the Muslim community. They need to
wake up to the reality that its their complacency which
is at least partially responsible for the debacle our
nation is facing in eradication of polio. Look at the
figures and you know that majority of polio cases come
from Muslim community. Isn’t it shameful for the
educated persons, so called leaders and religious
leaders of the community that while Muslims are
approximately 15% of the population they make up
approximately 70% of polio cases in the country.
Third, and last thing is for the policy makers to see to
it that this kind of malicious propaganda with a mala
fide intention is not tolerated. They should not
hesitate to call a spade a spade. It’s of no use saying
that the persons of a particular community are not
immunizing their children. Call it by its name. Say that
reluctance on the part of Muslim community as a whole to
immunize their children is causing suffering to their
own children. They need to incorporate various community
leaders, Imams of the mosques, educated persons and
especially Urdu media in this endeavour. What use is of
that campaign ad which shows a pan-chewing Maulana
giving expressionless lecture on polio immunization? And
lastly government should consider the possibility of
penalizing all those who spread misinformation regarding
vaccination without evidence to substantiate their
claims. They should be made to realize that it is
different to be ignorant of something and it is totally
different to deliberately mislead the illiterate and
innocent people of the nation in believing that some
thing as important as vaccination is harmful for their
children.
Earlier it is done the better.
Dr. Mohammed Ashfaque Memon is a pediatrician and
working as Registrar in the department of pediatrics at
government medical college Nanded, Maharashtra. He can
be contacted at
aashfaaaquememon@gmail.com top^
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