Congo Kinshasa 
Reports of poison vaccine sow panic in Congo

Misanet.com / IPS, 27 February - Newspapers in Congo Kinshasa (DRC) have published reports that hundreds of children in eastern Kivu Province have died after being injected with poison polio vaccine. The report has created a stir in the healthcare community, and has sown near panic among parents who are streaming into clinics in droves, demanding that their children be checked for signs of illness. 

Congolese newspapers, quoting nurses and doctors allegedly practising in that region, stated that the rate of child mortality has increased considerably just several months after the National Vaccination Campaign (JNV) targeted the area for the administration of polio vaccinations. 

A news release from the news agency Great Lakes Confidential (GLAC) also alleges that a spike in the death rate occurred after the vaccination campaign, which was run by non-governmental organisations operating with Uganda and Rwanda, countries which are occupying the DRC's eastern provinces. 

According to GLAC, this unusual wave of deaths is the result of a conquest strategy on the part of Rwanda and Uganda in the region. "Given the rampant child mortality rate, it is clear that the goal of the vaccination campaign was to cut down Kivu's children and depopulate the Congo," said the GLAC. 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) in Kinshasa says the report is not true. According to the WHO, GLAC's report is a hoax designed to stop parents from having their children vaccinated. "If there was really a spike in child mortality in Kivu, the WHO would be the first to know about it because we have offices reporting back to us in all the provinces. Furthermore, we would've been on-site in a flash, just like when a virus appeared in Marburgh Province, another territory under rebel occupation," explained Dr. Moussa Traore, who was in charge of organising the JNV for the WHO. 

Such rumourmongers should be prosecuted, he said, since by scaring parents, they are threatening the health of thousands of children who could fall ill to polio, creating a disaster of incalculable proportions.

Pierre Kandolo, director of the Expanded Vaccination Programme, has been supervising the JNV for three years. He called the story a joke in very poor taste which may cost its authors dearly. "We've given these vaccinations since 1998 to millions of children all across the country and we've never heard of anyone dying as a result."

In spite of such reassurances, however, the public remains uneasy. Eugenie Shamandevo, a computer specialist at a local business, is a mother of two children who were vaccinated during the last two JNVs. She believes there must be something to the story or it would not have spread so far so fast.

- I can no longer bring my kids to the JNV because it's risky. Reading the newspapers, I became quite frightened. I was one of the first to have my kids checked out by doctors. Thank goodness, they still appear to be healthy, she said, with a worried look. 

The members of certain religious sects which do not sanction vaccinations say they are now thankful that they saved their children from possible death. One housewife who steadfastly refused to have her children vaccinated was Catherine Walelo. "I thought there was something fishy about the whole thing. How can you give millions of children free vaccinations? An accident was bound to occur," she said. Walelo believes that the vaccinations children receive between infancy and five years of age are enough to protect them against polio. 

But Dr. Nicholas Ntumba, a doctor in Kinshasa's largest vaccination centre, says that such polio vaccines are only effective 80 percent of the time. The additional shots given during JNVs immunise the 20 percent who did not get immunity from their earlier shots. 

Ntumba has urged parents to bring their children to future JNV vaccination sites because they need to be immunised. "We can't let parents court disaster. Our duty is to save human lives, and parents need to trust us and bring in their kids. There is absolutely no danger from these shots," he insisted. 

Doctors say that they will not be deterred from their mission by detractors, and guarantee they will keep on with efforts to wipe out polio. "Our goal is to increase the number of vaccination campaigns so that the DRC will have zero new polio cases," said Ntumba. 

The DRC is one of the countries in Africa where outbreaks of polio have occurred since eradication efforts began in 1996. But polio eradication programmes got off the ground late here due to continual civil conflict in 1996 and in years following. The first campaigns against polio were organised in August 1998, after several cases of paralysis occurred that were later identified as poliomyelitis. 

While the last few JNVs have been wildly successful, reaching 90 percent of the 16 million targeted children, the 2001 JNVs may be compromised by the poison serum reports.

By Itcha Djata, IPS 

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