Al-Houthi's fatwas bring back polio to Yemen, 17 years after its demise
English - Tuesday 01 December 2020 الساعة 05:17 pm
NewsYemen, report special:
Yemen is struggling again, through extensive immunization campaigns, to prevent the outbreak of the polio virus, which has reappeared in the areas controlled by the Houthi militia 17 years after the country got rid of it.
In the past days, a national campaign to vaccinate children under the age of five against this virus was carried out in the areas controlled by the Houthi group - Iran's arm in Yemen - while a similar campaign will be carried out in areas under the internationally recognized government next week, according to the World Health Organization.
The campaign, implemented with the support of the World Health Organization and UNICEF, aims to vaccinate 5.5 million children under the age of five through fixed health centers and mobile vaccination teams.
Yemen got rid of the polio virus completely since 2006 and obtained a certificate of being free of this virus by the World Health Organization in 2009.
However, UNICEF announced last August that it had detected new cases of the virus in remote areas in the northwest of the country that had not been vaccinated for a long time.
She added, "Significant challenges and disruptions in shipping stool samples from Yemen during the past two years have led to delays in identifying the disease ... local obstacles, including security, limit the implementation of the internationally recommended home-to-house immunization protocol."
While the coup militia kept secret at the time about the return of this virus to its areas of control, which are suffering from multiple deadly epidemics and extreme poverty due to the repercussions of the war since its armed coup on September 21, 2014.
Health sources in Sana'a told NewsYemen that the return of paralysis to the Houthi areas is not limited to preventing the implementation of routine vaccination campaigns and impeding the arrival of vaccination teams to various areas, but also to what religious leaders and Houthi supervisors issued fatwas that "prohibit vaccination of Yemeni children with vaccines made by Jews and Christians." And what other rumors spread claim that vaccines "cause sterility for Muslims and fatal complications and consider this as an extension of a Jewish conspiracy that seeks to exterminate Muslims and prevent their reproduction," warning that the epidemiological situation is dangerous for the outbreak of multiple epidemics at one time, including the six killer diseases for children in the Houthi areas, but they conceal it as eternity. Fixed for the coup group, so as not to show the world the tragedy that millions of Yemenis under their control live.
Houthi Minister of Health recognizes the prohibition of vaccination
The preacher of Jammeh Al-Hashash, Taha Al-Mutawakel, who was appointed by the Houthi militia as Minister of Health in its coup government, implicitly admitted the existence of inflammatory rumors against child immunization, without referring to the religious fatwas issued by religious sheikhs in the movement.
And after accusations made by the legitimate government of the Houthis of bearing responsibility for the return of polio and obstructing the implementation of vaccination, the Houthi minister, Taha Al-Mutawakel, who is considered one of the Houthi leaders who studied in Shiite academic seminaries in Iran, had to come out with a statement urging parents to immunize children against polio in this campaign that lasted from Saturday to Monday.
He said, "There is no cure for these deadly diseases except through immunization and vaccination to save children from them. Parents and mothers should not listen to malicious rumors that target immunization campaigns and vaccines, as they come from outside and are not safe."
He added, "These allegations are baseless and that vaccines are safe and subject to global control, and there are no complications as a result of immunization as some promote it.
" According to what was quoted by the agency Saba, which is under the control of the revolutionaries.
The Houthi Minister of Health evaded acknowledging the emergence of polio in their areas and justified the current vaccination campaign for the emergence of infections in other countries.
He said, "This emergency campaign comes in light of the continued emergence of cases of wild poliovirus in some countries of the world, which has strengthened the danger of the virus to Yemen, especially in the current critical conditions it is going through as a result of the continuing aggression and blockade," he claimed.
According to international statistics, there are currently no cases of polio, except in Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with Yemen, while the rest of the world has got rid of it.
While Al-Mutawakel admitted that there were deaths as a result of not immunizing and vaccinating children, he held everyone responsible for negligence in immunizing children and protecting them from diseases ... in an attempt to rid his group of the accusations against it of obstructing immunization.
The Minister of Public Health and Population in the legitimate government, Dr. Nasser Baoum, had previously announced the registration of 16 new cases of polio in the Houthi strongholds in Saada.
"During the past three years, the Houthis have prevented the Ministry of Health from carrying out vaccination campaigns against polio in the governorates under their control," he said.
The Minister of Health in the legitimate government expected that the polio virus infection had moved from the governorates of Saada and Hajjah to neighboring governorates, especially Amran and Al Mahwit, holding the Houthi group responsible for the re-emergence and spread of the virus, after Yemen had announced, in 2006, its final disposal of it and no longer. No injuries scored.
It is noteworthy that the poliovirus is an acute, highly contagious viral disease that invades the nervous system and is capable of causing complete paralysis within hours of time.
It usually affects children under five years of age and causes permanent paralysis for the patient throughout his life.
