Breaking News: Vaccination on the Table as RUN inducts First set of Public Health Graduates

 

 

 It was the dawn of a new season for public health in Nigeria, as for the first time in a formal mainstream academic setting, Vaccination was disrobed of its deity status, and made the subject of serious scientific discourse. 

 The event, on Monday 12^th October, was the induction of the first graduates in Public Health from the highly regarded Redeemer’s University (RUN), Ede, Osun state.  RUN with her world-renowned Centre of Infectious diseases, is undoubtedly one of the topmost Universities on the African continent – particularly in the field of public health. LivingScience Foundation had the pleasure in participating at the special Symposium that examined the topic "Vaccinations in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects."

 Though comprised largely of various health professionals who believe that Vaccination is the best thing that ever happened to public health anywhere in the world, without exception, everyone agreed that the positioning of vaccination as the unquestionable silver bullet for all health issues is terribly wrong, and is leading to rational vaccine hesitancy.

For instance, the seasoned and highly regarded keynote Speaker at the Induction programme, Prof Ganiyu Aarinola expressed dismay at a situation he has frequently observed in the field: of malnourished babies, infested with helminths (intestinal worms) who are nevertheless having vaccines administered to them.  Prof Aarinola was blunt in insisting that such would be an exercise in futility as those vulnerable subjects already have seriously compromised immune systems that would not benefit from vaccination.

Many of the distinguished Panelists and audience, were also learning for the first time from the contributions by the LivingScience, that the continued administration of Oral Polio Vaccine to millions of Nigerian children is against the direct recommendation of the World Health Assembly (WHA) that the product should be withdrawn from public use.  Most developed countries had proscribed OPV for decades, before this recommendation from the WHA in May 2012.  After dragging feet for three years, Nigerian health authorities announced a phased removal of OPV from use, to be replaced by the globally accepted Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV).  Sadly, till date, that “phased removal” is still ongoing with Nigeria children receiving 4 doses of OPV and 2 of IPV according to the official schedule.  Not only is OPV guaranteed to generate, in the immediate, polio outbreaks in thousands of the children population (sadistically and euphemistically termed Vaccine-derived Polio); fifteen to thirty years ahead, at least eighty percent of the vaccinated subjects must prepare to be confronted with the  debilitating so-called Post Polio Syndrome. 

LivingScience Foundation seized the opportunity of the Symposium to distribute free copies of our Special Report on Vaccination to the audience. Materials from the Special Report have also been condensed into Book Markers which were also distributed at the event.  To download the Special Report, please go to https://lsfnigeria.org/vaxreport And for the Book Marker, go to  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VdZO7TrrA8lZuMRiVG6lRAzGfyut85Yd/view?usp=drive_link