RELIGIOUS intransigence is still thwarting efforts to eradicate the crippling disease polio.
Ten west African countries are once again polio-free, after a campaign against vaccination by some Muslim clerics in Nigeria in 2003 led to outbreaks that spread as far as Indonesia. Six African countries plus Yemen and Indonesia are still affected. The World Health Organization says it will not be gone from Africa even by mid-2006.
Meanwhile, another polio-free country, the US, has seen the virus surface in a religious community that rejects vaccination. An Amish child in Minnesota was infected while in hospital for an immune deficiency, and…
