FEATURED PHOTOS AND STORIES

January 13, 2020

Two new flags will be flying high at the Olympic Games in Rio.

For the first time, South Sudan and Kosovo have been recognized by the International Olympic Committee. Kosovo, which was a province of the former Yugoslavia, will have 8 athletes competing; and a good shot for a medal in women's judo: Majlinda Kelmendi is considered a favorite. She's ranked first in the world in her weight class.

(South Sudan's James Chiengjiek, Yiech Biel & coach Joe Domongole, © AFP) South Sudan, which became independent in 2011, will have three runners competing in the country's first Olympic Games.

When Will Chile's Post Office's Re-open? 

(PHOTO: Workers set up camp at Santiago's Rio Mapocho/Mason Bryan, The Santiago Times)Chile nears 1 month without mail service as postal worker protests continue. This week local branches of the 5 unions representing Correos de Chile voted on whether to continue their strike into a 2nd month, rejecting the union's offer. For a week the workers have set up camp on the banks of Santiago's Río Mapocho displaying banners outlining their demands; framing the issue as a division of the rich & the poor. The strike’s main slogan? “Si tocan a uno, nos tocan a todos,” it reads - if it affects 1 of us, it affects all of us. (Read more at The Santiago Times)

WHO convenes emergency talks on MERS virus

 

(PHOTO: Saudi men walk to the King Fahad hospital in the city of Hofuf, east of the capital Riyadh on June 16, 2013/Fayez Nureldine)The World Health Organization announced Friday it had convened emergency talks on the enigmatic, deadly MERS virus, which is striking hardest in Saudi Arabia. The move comes amid concern about the potential impact of October's Islamic hajj pilgrimage, when millions of people from around the globe will head to & from Saudi Arabia.  WHO health security chief Keiji Fukuda said the MERS meeting would take place Tuesday as a telephone conference & he  told reporters it was a "proactive move".  The meeting could decide whether to label MERS an international health emergency, he added.  The first recorded MERS death was in June 2012 in Saudi Arabia & the number of infections has ticked up, with almost 20 per month in April, May & June taking it to 79.  (Read more at Xinhua)

LINKS TO OTHER STORIES

                                

Dreams and nightmares - Chinese leaders have come to realize the country should become a great paladin of the free market & democracy & embrace them strongly, just as the West is rejecting them because it's realizing they're backfiring. This is the "Chinese Dream" - working better than the American dream.  Or is it just too fanciful?  By Francesco Sisci

Baby step towards democracy in Myanmar  - While the sweeping wins Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy has projected in Sunday's by-elections haven't been confirmed, it is certain that the surging grassroots support on display has put Myanmar's military-backed ruling party on notice. By Brian McCartan

The South: Busy at the polls - South Korea's parliamentary polls will indicate how potent a national backlash is against President Lee Myung-bak's conservatism, perceived cronyism & pro-conglomerate policies, while offering insight into December's presidential vote. Desire for change in the macho milieu of politics in Seoul can be seen in a proliferation of female candidates.  By Aidan Foster-Carter  

Pakistan climbs 'wind' league - Pakistan is turning to wind power to help ease its desperate shortage of energy,& the country could soon be among the world's top 20 producers. Workers & farmers, their land taken for the turbine towers, may be the last to benefit.  By Zofeen Ebrahim

Turkey cuts Iran oil imports - Turkey is to slash its Iranian oil imports as it seeks exemptions from United States penalties linked to sanctions against Tehran. Less noticed, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the Iranian capital last week, signed deals aimed at doubling trade between the two countries.  By Robert M. Cutler

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Friday
May072010

CBC NEWS - "THE CURRENT" - FEATURES POLIO REPORTING 

In today's episode of the CBC's Radio program, "The Current", UNICEF's efforts to eradicate polio from Nigeria are highlighted. Some of the technology used was provided by HUM. Listen HERE: http://bit.ly/asokix

PART THREE

Polio Eradication - Bruce Aylward

We started this segment with a group of drummers in the Kano district in northern Nigeria. They're playing at the launch of a polio vaccination campaign. Health care workers have come from all over the area to reach this village. And their goal is to vaccinate every child under age of five. The Kano district has been called the epicentre of polio in Africa.

Polio has been eradicated in North America, Europe and parts of Asia. But in pockets of Africa and Asia, there are still outbreaks ... outbreaks that leave children paralyzed or even dead. For a long time, many people in this part of Nigeria didn't get their children vaccinated ... in part because of the widespread belief that the vaccinations are part of a western plot to sterilize girls or transmit HIV. It was only when local leaders embraced the vaccinations that things started to change.

Michael Bociurkiw traveled to Nigera on behalf of UNICEF to document stories from the vaccination campaign. His stories appear on UNICEF and HUM. We heard from Sarkin Yaki Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu Wada. He's a local traditional leader in the Kano district.

But despite his blunt words, health care workers still find people who won't allow their children to be vaccinated. Josephine Kamara works for UNICEF in Nigeria. Last week, she and a local government manager spent three hours negotiating with a defiant father. We heard from her.

The fact that it only takes one unvaccinated child to undermine an entire campaign means that the goal of eradicating polio is a challenging one. In fact, some argue it would be better to focus on managing the disease instead. But the World Health Organization is pushing ahead with its goal of eradicating polio within the next three years. And it is putting forward a new strategic plan, which will be discussed later this month at the World Health Assembly in Geneva.

Bruce Aylward is the Director of the W.H.O.'s Global Polio Eradication Program. He was in Geneva.

Polio Eradication - D.A. Henderson

As we mentioned earlier, not everyone believes that polio can be eradicated. D.A. Henderson is among the skeptics. He's a distinguished scholar at the Centre for Biosecurity. He led the global campaign that eradicated smallpox. He was in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Monday
May032010

Field Notes from Nigeria Day 4 – Scenes from the global polio eradication campaign, child by child

("Non compliant" Umar Kwangwaro in Maraku Ward)

(HN, April 30, 2010) -- We first spotted our “non compliance case” at the end of a motorbike path deep in Kano state, in Kiru Local Government Area (LGA).  The 4x4 was hardly able to negotiate the dusty, bumpy terrain. It was Friday and we were eager to verify the situation before the men left for prayers at the local mosque.

Upon arriving though at the local health post to be briefed by officials, an ice cold cola was thrust into our hands. I thought to myself:  if they can keep cola this cold in this searing heat then their vaccine cold chain which keeps the Polio vaccine live for the eradication campaign, must be in tip-top shape.

This area inhabited by the reluctant villagers is almost completely disconnected from the outside world. No electricity reaches the settlement, people rely daylight, fire and each other for daily living and information, and there is no bore hole for water extraction for the community.  During the rainy season, roads and paths are generally inaccessible, and the children exhibit various signs of malnutrition. The fields are so dry they are hardly able to sustain crops.

Little wonder the locals here have a litany of complaints to share with anyone who will listen.

(Josephine Kamara of UNICEF tries to persuade people in Makaru Ward of the need for polio vaccination.)

It was a demand for better government services that led Umar Kwangwaro to refuse polio vaccination for his own two children. And because he is the de facto village head, no other families brought their children forward to the vaccination team. After about 90 minutes of sometimes passionate persuasion by UNICEF’S Josephine Kamara, it was abundantly clear Kwangwaro wouldn't budge from his position.

In some ways Kwangwaro is no fool. He realizes that the desire among officials and aid workers to vaccinate and eradicate polio is very high. So why not use his demands for water, power and basic infrastructure improvements as a bargaining chip?  Kwangwaro says as soon as a bore hole they have been demanding for fresh springs water is dug, he will allow the vaccination team - which has been sitting patiently all morning - to administer the polio drops.

Clearly there is no issue with the quality of the vaccines. But when Josephine asks this hold-out about the threat of a polio outbreak he is exposing his children to, he shrugs his shoulders and says “it’s God’s will”.

At first Kwangwaro, as the village leader agrees to allow Josephine to speak privately with other villagers. He then quickly retracts the permission when he realizes she is prepared to spend the entire day here, if that's what it takes.

“If one child here gets infected, the whole world is at risk,” says Josephine to Kwangwaro. She continues through a translator: “Tell him he’s really hurt my feelings. I feel very bad for the children. Tell him I love children and he’s really hurt my feelings for the children.”

I comment to Josephine that should this form of blackmail catch on, it could spread like wildfire. But she and others are confident that quick high-level intervention - by the District Head or Traditional Leader - will yield swift, positive results. The current round of vaccination ends in a day or two and there is little inclination to arrange a special mop-up campaign for this settlement.

Later I ask Josephine how she felt to have left the settlement and the unvaccinated children behind: “I left that community with my head down....I felt frustrated that we were not able to make a break-through”.

I ask the district EPI Manager if there is any issue with the vaccine itself. “No - before they used to take it. We have never experienced a case of such non-compliance except for today. It’s only this round; previously they have been receiving it.” 

Some observers say that in order to boost enthusiasm for polio vaccination - which requires several rounds-a-year, extreme micro-planning, detailed social mobilization and a full-proof cold chain - the approach needs to be shifted to address the economic concerns of communities, as well as other child killers such as malaria and water-borne diseases.

But if there is one thing this non-compliance case showed, it's that a rapid response is required to address hold-outs like Kwangwaro, as well as the moral suasion of traditional leaders, or district heads.

(This girl in Kano State contracted polio at a young age.)

Postscript: The following day, after the direct intervention of the traditional leader, Kwangwaro allowed all the eligible children in the settlement to be vaccinated.

--- Reporting for HUMNEWS, Michael Bociurkiw is in Nigeria documenting polio eradication efforts for UNICEF.

Friday
Apr302010

Field Notes from Nigeria Day 3 – Scenes from the global Polio eradication campaign in Makarya Ward

("Sarkin Yaki" leads a sensitization session in Makarya Ward.)

(HN, April 30, 2010)  At first appearance, Alhaji Aliyu Wada is an imposing man.  As he sprints out of his souped-up Toyota Landcruiser, his people bow to him in reverence. 

Wada - the "Sarkin Yaki" (Hausa translation: people's warrior) is the traditional leader of this region of Nigeria – and takes us to witness a `sensitization’ session for village leaders in Makarya Ward; a pristine settlement in comparison to the others we have visited this past week.

By the time we arrive, people of all ages are sitting and standing patiently as the enormous dust cloud our 4x4 vehicles have kicked up, settles around them. I immediately noticed that the temporary immunization post had already begun vaccinating children though - well before Wada arrived.  Health workers seem not only to be conducting the process to the letter – but children's hands are marked immediately after receiving the drops and are given sweets and soap – and also an official vaccination card to help their parents keep track of future jabs of the vaccine dosings.

Later, we follow a vaccination team as they meticulously make their way through the village streets lined with simple mud huts and where goats and chickens compete for space along the sidelines. Again, in this village as opposed to others we’ve seen, everything is done according to the book by health workers - right down to marking the outdoor hut walls with white chalk to indicate that all children aged 0-5 years old have been vaccinated.

The heat at this time of day is absolutely punishing, and I make a mental note that I probably have another 20 minutes or so left before the searing heat does me in. I notice that even the local men are perspiring profusely. Yet the vaccination teams go about their business - one worker even carrying a young baby on her back.  The rest of the team of five carries the cold box with the vaccines, the case containing the so-called plusses for vaccination recipients (sweets or soap), and two of the five tasked with a marker and a tally sheet.

("Sarkin Yaki" speaks in the field.)

Earlier Wada spoke emphatically to his people, stressing in the local Hausa dialect the importance of vaccination for polio to the gathering of attentive parents. It’s an outdoor session, and even though it’s meant for the ears of male village leaders, people of all ages have come to see what the fuss is about. Young men sit on tree branches to get a better view of Sarkin Yaki, dressed in intricate blue and white robes, weigh forth on polio.

Listening even just a few minutes to Wada, you quickly realize why traditional leaders like him are such potent ammunition in the protracted fight against polio which has struck over 350,000 people in Nigeria, but is now close to eradication.

Wada bristles when asked about so-called non-compliant families who refuse to vaccinate their children. The head of the household should be threatened with legal action, and he authoritatively cites the exact number of a northern Nigerian states law (#138) which mandates this.

"It is the instruction of the Emir (of Kano) that no one should be spared," Wada said on camera, slowing down his words to emphasize the word "spared." He goes on: "If he tries to say 'no' well perhaps he should be taken away...and that house MUST be vaccinated. Maybe he should be locked up for a day or two. As a matter a fact, if you don't comply you can be locked up for up to two years. But we don't want to do that (lock people up). We start by talking and talking and we keep talking - convincing people of the need to get vaccinated.  We'll then tell them that if you are not vaccinated, you might possibly pick up the disease.”

"If we were able to vaccinate 200 people in this area,” he goes on, “and one single individual family refuses us to vaccinate his child, the child might pick up the polio. And you know once he has it, he can spread it to the entire population. Meaning, we are going five steps forward and ten steps back.”

"We will not allow this,” he says. “We have to protect the people. We will not allow any single individual to fall out of vogue and refuse to get vaccinated. And then, we allow him to go free with it. No way!  I promise you that in the next three, four or five months you will be seeing a much better performance."

Later, in his palace, Wada elaborates on his earlier statements on using tough justice for people who refuse to vaccinate.

"Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind," he says, as he beckons us to help ourselves to a third serving of Nigerian pepper soup, pigeon and `roadrunner chicken’. (YUM!)

Wada says his words carry, by far, more weight than the average Nigerian politician because his position is inherited and he is with his people “twenty-four, seven”. He adds: "Even if I get a call in the middle of the night, I will go check into a problem for my people."

(A young boy receives a pair of polio drops in Makarya Ward.)

He said the night before he had received word of a non-compliant family.  He sent his driver with a group of vaccinators and the family immediately came around and allowed their children to receive the polio drops. "Even if the parents are not there, I will authorize the team to go in on my behalf and ensure that they vaccinate."

When an aid (who, by the way, has four wives and 24 children; Wada has only one) comes in to inform him of an urgent matter requiring his attention, Wada apologetically excuses himself and asks us to help ourselves to more home-cooked Nigerian food and talk about our efforts for tomorrow.

--- Reporting for HUMNEWS, Michael Bociurkiw is in Nigeria documenting polio eradication efforts for UNICEF.

Thursday
Apr292010

Field Notes from Nigeria Day 2 – Highs and lows in the global Polio eradication campaign

(This young girl in Kano state, Nigeria is a polio victim.)

(HN, April 29, 2010) --- Today was a roller coaster ride of hope and despair.   Hope because we witnessed an entire community - mobilized by its traditional leader - rally around the cause of polio immunization. At a so-called flag-off ceremony at the remote settlement of Yalwa in Rimin Gado LGA - led by the District Head, Alhaji Shehu Mohammed Dankade - children thronged the polio vaccination point even before it opened.

Two local men beat drums and plucked at a string instrument, while another used a bull horn to announce that the polio vaccine had arrived and was ready to be dropped into the mouths of children.   "It's amazing there seems to be absolutely no resistance to this round of polio vaccination," said a health worker. District head Dankade and religious and political leaders lined up to administer the first double drops to young children while girls and boys thrust their younger siblings forward to receive the two drops of vaccine.  Health workers then drew a line on their fingers with a blue marker, handed them some sweets or a bar of soap and ticked off a box on a tally sheet that they had received the disease fighting treatment.

(Children in Kano state watch a polio vaccination campaign.) 

The enthusiasm and almost carnival-like atmosphere left us pumped up, elated. What we saw was the culmination of weeks and months of high-level advocacy - coupled with excruciating micro-planning at the local level – with a goal to ensure that all 6-million or so eligible children 0-5 years old in Nigeria are protected against polio.

It was during the ceremony that we were introduced to two young polio victims. Actually no one needed to point them out to us. I spotted them through the viewfinder of my SONY camcorder as I panned to capture the scene.  Their legs hung lifeless on the chairs. Their eyes full of sadness as they sat motionless while their friends rushed to the vaccinators for the drops and sweets. Because their parents had failed to get them vaccinated in the first crucial months of their lives they will be deprived of a normal life forever. That's the grim and cruel reality of the invisible polio virus as it travels indiscriminately from child to child - and across borders.

(This young boy is also, a polio victim. Vaccines came too late for him.)

I commented to a UNICEF colleague, Josephine Kamara that parents only need to see these victims first hand in order to take the necessary steps to protect their children. Indeed we are told by health workers that there are few, if any, so-called non-compliance cases in Yalwa. Covering the entire targeted group of kids should be, in theory, a no-brainer.

But then we come face-to-face with what I termed one of the few remaining "weak links" in the global, multi-million dollar effort to eradicate polio.

As we strolled deeper into the labyrinth of mud huts, we decided to conduct a spot check on the homes that had just been visited by vaccination teams. Elaborate codes had been scribbled on the front walls or doors of mud houses, indicating that they had been visited and that all the children inside vaccinated.

But just minutes into our tour, one by one, young children approached us showing the unmarked hands of their younger siblings (mothers - following tradition - stay inside). The further we went into the community, the more children came forward who were missed by the health workers.

Said one government health official, a medical doctor: "It's a miracle that we have been able to contain polio in Kano state. It seems almost 50 percent of the children here were missed."

Eerily there is no sign of the immunization teams but luckily our partners brought along a vaccine carrier and sweets to conduct a spot, unplanned mop-up campaign. A planning meeting later in the day looked into why the area was not properly covered. We later learned that remedial steps had been swiftly implemented and that a new team would be deployed to the area to follow up. I hoped so.

--- Reporting for HUMNEWS, Michael Bociurkiw is in Nigeria documenting polio eradication efforts for UNICEF.

Wednesday
Apr282010

Field Notes from Nigeria – Stories from the Polio Eradication Campaign

(HN, April 28, 2010)  Its only 10am and already the outdoor thermometer on the dashboard of the UNICEF 4x4 reads 34 degrees Celsius.

We are a 90 minute drive away from our destination: the Rogo Local Government Area (LGA) in the most populous state in Nigeria, Kano. "This is one of the high risk LGA's in Northern Nigeria for polio," said Josephine Kamara, a UNICEF official in charge of social mobilization for UNICEF.  A native of Sierra Leone, Josephine has been working in Nigeria for the last five years and the last five months with UNICEF.

Josephine describes her job as convincing communities to vaccinate - a seemingly impossible task at times, especially when some parents regard Western-made vaccines as tools for sterilization - or worse.  Others can’t understand why their children need to receive up to a dozen rounds of the polio drops.

Explains Josephine: "One of the things I learned is to blend in...to dress like them, speak their language and being respectful of their religion and customs. Once you get all those things, you get accepted in the community and everything else will fall into place. For me as a foreigner that works for me."

Indeed once we arrive in Rogo and meet with the revered traditional leader of Rogo, Ahmed Muhammad Maharaz - resplendent in flowing white robes - he immediately greets Josephine warmly and asks if she is the same Josephine he used to listen to reporting on Voice of America from several African countries.  (Yes)

Articulate, passionate and warm, Maharaz speaks for about 30 minutes to his citizens about the importance of vaccination.  Later he tells me in halting English that convincing arguments can be made to dispel fears among skeptical parents about the vaccines.  "I tell them do you think these foreigners would spend all this money to get rid of us? There are faster and cheaper ways. I also remind them that when their children get sick the first thing they do is take them to a clinic for life saving medicine, which are made in the West. And then their children get cured."

Listening to Maharaz, it quickly becomes clear why the so-called traditional leaders have become such a powerful, integral component in the battle to eradicate polio. They carry, by far, more moral authority than Nigeria's elected leaders. And because Kano is a state where polio vaccination was opposed some years ago, turning over hearts and minds can be challenging, to say the least.

Josephine explains that while the use of the traditional leaders has proven key to lowering the incidence of polio - there has been only one recorded case in the country so far this year, compared to 193 at the same time last year - fixing other bottlenecks has proven vexing. One frustration is ensuring the integrity of the vaccines as they make their way from regional stores to the mouths of children. In the punishing heat of the desert - where temperatures soar to 45 degrees Celsius and where power outages are frequent - it’s easy for vaccines to lose their effectiveness.

An Expert Review Committee of Nigerians, UNICEF, WHO, Rotary and other partners has recommended a minimum of eight rounds of polio drops - down from 12 doses in previous years.

One WHO field worker said Monday that a freezer generator procured specially for the polio vaccination campaign in Kano state broke within minutes because it hadn’t been installed properly.  In some areas solar powered refrigerators are used but have life spans of only one or two years because they are not maintained properly.

Later, at a meeting of state partners that was held in the dark due to power outages, we heard that a handful of LGAs have delayed vaccination because they haven't put into place supplies of so-called plusses - soap, sweets and other handouts that have been proven to attract mothers and their kids to vaccination days.  Indeed I saw for myself how every mother grasped for the handouts as soon as their children received the polio drop.

Out here in rural areas, where some communities have only a dozen children, health workers need to travel long distances just to reach a small pocket of kids. And when the rainy season strikes, many villages are inaccessible - even by motorcycle. The WHO point person in Rogo LGA told us, "In urban areas reaching 750 children is easily done in one day. Out here some health workers consider a day successful if they have reached 15 children."

He went on to emphatically explain that all it takes is one missed child to infect others. "That one child we missed can be a big problem," he said, adding that he has more than half a million children to track for vaccination in more than 600 communities.

Experts estimate that just one infected child could put another 200 at risk.

The 600,000-plus children targeted for vaccination in this LGA is part of the critical second round of a synchronized effort to stop a polio outbreak across West and Central Africa. In all, more than 77 million children in 16 countries will be vaccinated over the next few months. Each vaccination team will carry the vaccine in special carriers, filled with ice packs to ensure the vaccine remains below the required 8ºC. 

To end this outbreak two drops of oral polio vaccine (OPV) will be administered to every child in 16 countries, including Nigeria.  An army of more than 300,000 volunteers and health workers will work up to 12 hours per day, travelling on foot or bicycles, in cars and boats and on motorcycles, in often trying conditions – dedicated to the ultimate goal of ending polio on the planet as we know it, for everyone.

--- Reporting for HUMNEWS, Michael Bociurkiw is in Nigeria documenting polio eradication efforts for UNICEF.



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