Atheists & Agnostics

The World Health Organisation has expressed concern after Kenya's Catholic Bishops issued a call to boycott the country's Polio vaccination program

The polio virus attacks the nervous system, and can cause someone to be paralysed within hours. It mostly hits children under the age of 5, and there is no cure.

Eradicating the virus requires immunising every child until it has nobody left it can spread to.

"Kenya is one of the countries in the “wild poliovirus importation belt” – a band of countries stretching from west Africa to central Africa and the Horn of Africa, which are recurrently re-infected with imported poliovirus," according to the World Polio Eradicaiton Initiative.

According to Christian Today this is the second time the Catholic Bishops have opposed a vaccination effort, as they mounted a campaign against a Tetanus vaccine last year citing fears that it was "being used as a covert means of controlling the country's population."

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Kenya's government meanwhile is less than pleased.

"Any attempts aimed at mobilizing the public against taking their children for vaccination is a serious violation of the right of children to health and survival," said Dr. Nicholas Muraguri, director of Kenya's Medical Services, in the statement according to the National Catholic Reporter.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2015/07/31/Catholic-Church-makes-things-easier-for-Polio-in-Kenya