Obstacle Course to Global Health: In Worldwide Campaigns, Rumors Trump Science

This article illustrates what it describes as a seldom-acknowledged issue facing global health campaigns: rumours. In addition to lack of funding, political will, and scientific progress rates, public perception is seen here as playing a huge role in the success of most health initiatives. In particular, immunisation campaigns are portrayed as vulnerable to misinformation, which may result in large segments of the population refusing to participate in the programmes.

The case of the 2003 polio vaccination boycott in northern Nigeria is used here to exemplify this point. Political leaders in the upper states barred polio immunisation on the grounds that Western powers were using the vaccine to sterilise children, thereby controlling the Muslim population. The impact of this vaccination ban on disease transmission was almost immediate, and within 2 years Nigeria accounted for almost half of the poliovirus cases in the world. Additionally, over a dozen previously polio-free countries became re-infected as a result of viral importation from Nigeria.