Polio returns as Nigerians shun vaccine

POLIO left Dauda Abdullahi with twisted limbs, unable to walk. But he refuses to allow his children to be immunised against the disease that crippled him in Nigeria three decades ago.

“Only Allah can save us. I don’t trust medicine,” the 42-year-old roadside shoemaker said.

Immunising toddlers with mouth drops has reduced the number of polio cases from 350,000 children annually in the 1980s to fewer than 800 worldwide last year.