Nigeria: Polio

Polio is a highly infectious virus that cripples those children it does not kill. In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared it had contained polio to three countries and was close to eradicating it. An unprecedented, sustained and multibillion-dollar global effort had confined the virus to Nigeria, Pakistan and India, and WHO was closing in on victory.

Religious zealotry, misinformation and vaccine distrust coerced villagers in the Muslim north of Nigeria into refusing polio vaccinations and led to the re-emergence of polio just a few years after it had nearly joined smallpox on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of eradicated diseases. Over the next four years, more than 3,000 children were infected with polio, and by 2006, WHO reported more than 20 countries were reinfected with the Nigeria strain of the virus.

Polio victim Abubakar, 6, crawls past his mother’s footprint at their home near Kano, Nigeria. He contracted polio during the 11-month ban on the polio vaccine in three northern Nigeria states.

A boy plays in a canal filled with raw sewage and drainage water in a neighborhood in Kano, Nigeria. Wild polio virus grows in water contaminated by raw sewage and is spread by insufficient hygiene.

While hanging freshly washed clothes, Khadija Aminu, crippled for many years with polio, talks to her son Umar, 8, also crippled with polio, at their home in Kano, Nigeria. Out of seven children, Umar is the only one with polio. Umar's father is Aminu Ahmen El Wada, founder and chairman of the Kano State Polio Victims Trust Association.

Auwal Ibrahim, crippled by polio, rolls through traffic on a makeshift skateboard, begging for alms from drivers on a busy street in Kano, Nigeria.

Polio victims roll through traffic on makeshift skateboards, begging for alms from drivers on a busy street in Kano, Nigeria. The men pool the money they make and split the proceeds.

Crippled by polio, Musa Asa, makes about forty cents a day, shoveling sand dredged from the Tamburawa River, outside Kano, Nigeria. He has been working there four years.

The Emir of Kano, His Royal Highness Alhaji Dr. Ado Bayero, holds court in his 15th-century palace in Kano, Nigeria. The Emir supported the polio vaccine ban but now supports the immunization campaigns.

Instead of receiving the polio vaccine during an immunization campaign in Kano, Nigeria, boys study the Koran at their neighborhood Islamic school. Polio vaccinators fanned out across the Fagge Government Area, in Ward Kwciri, looking for children under the age of 5 on Day One of the Immunization Plus Day sponsored by UNICEF around Kano, Nigeria.

Josephine Kamara (right), the UNICEF officer in charge of social mobilization for the polio vaccine campaign, and a village religious leader (left) plead with a man (middle) who refused the polio vaccine for his children. Polio vaccinators fanned out across the Fagge Government Area, in Ward Kwciri, looking for children under the age of 5 on Day One of the Immunization Plus Day, (IPD) sponsored by UNICEF around Kano, Nigeria.

Brothers Nura, 21 (left), and Aminu, 22 (far right), watch their brother Mujahid Abdullahi, 9, receive light treatment for his legs, crippled with polio. Sani Musa (middle), holds his 3-year-old daughter, Zaniab, who contracted polio after her mother refused vaccinations for the child. Families bring their children crippled by polio to the Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital in Kano, Nigeria, to receive light treatment. Families pay 100 naira, about 40 cents, for 15 minutes under heat lamps.

Abdullahi Alasan, 18, crippled with polio and and was not allowed to go to school when he was a boy. Noe, the Nigerian government allows students with polio to go to school for free, and he is in a class with 6- to 10-year-olds in a primary school in Kano, Nigeria.

A television is set up in a neighborhood in Kano, Nigeria, during a "majigi," or mobile cinema, to show government programs touting the polio immunization campaigns.

In the village of Kura, near Kano, Nigeria, Josephine Kamara, the UNICEF officer in charge of social mobilization for the polio vaccine campaign, checks the temperature of refrigerators holding the polio vaccine and talks to vaccinators before they head out in the village to look for children under the age of 5 to vaccinate against polio.

Polio victim Abubakar, 6 (right), follows a boy in his neighborhood near Kano, Nigeria. He became infected with polio during the ban on the vaccine, when more than 3,000 children were crippled by polio and more than 20 countries were re-infected with the Nigeria strain of the virus.

Vaccinators Bilyaminu Yakuba and Sani Mohammed plead with a child under the age of 5 to let them administer two drops of polio vaccine on his tongue at a stationary vaccine site. Polio vaccinators fan out across the Fagge Government Area, in Ward Kwciri, looking for children under the age of 5 on Day One of the Immunization Plus Day sponsored by UNICEF around Kano, Nigeria.

Boys wait their turn for vaccinator Sani Mohammed to administer two drops of polio vaccine on their tongues at a stationary vaccine site. Polio vaccinators fan out across the Fagge Government Area, in Ward Kwciri, looking for children under the age of 5 on Day One of the Immunization Plus Day, sponsored by UNICEF around Kano, Nigeria.

Illuminated by a flashlight, Mohamad Hamidan, village head of R'Lemo; Abdurrahaman Mohammad, head of ward; and Sabiu Abdulkarim read numbers from the day's immunization campaign in the village of R'Lemo.

Liman Maikaji, holds up his son Abubakar, 6, who is crippled with polio, at his family home in the village of Rimin-Gado outside of Kano, Nigeria.

Usman Nuhu is 25 years old and his feet twisted inward from polio. He takes a break from his job building wheelchairs at the Kano State Polio Victims Trust Association in Kano, Nigeria, to wash his feet before afternoon prayers.

Umar, 8, son of Aminu Ahmen El Wada, founder and chairman of the Kano State Polio Victims Trust Association, is crippled with polio and stands with the help of a crutch in the guinea-fowl house at his home in Kano, Nigeria. There are seven children in the family, and Umar is the only child with polio and the only one who was not born in a hospital. He contracted the virus when he was a toddler. Both of his parents are crippled with polio.