Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Accessed 1 June 2013
In Somalia, some parents say no to polio vaccine
Abdi Guled 5:51 PM ET

Excerpt
Islamist rebels are opposing a campaign in Somalia to administer a polio vaccine.

The al-Shabab extremists have been pushed out of virtually all of Somalia’s cities and face continued military pressure from African Union and government troops. Health workers are gaining access to more children to give the life-saving polio vaccine. But some parents are refusing the inoculation, apparently heeding the advice of the Islamist militants who warn that the vaccination exercise is part of a foreign conspiracy to kill or weaken Somali children.

Vaccination workers who walked door to door in the capital, Mogadishu, were turned away by some parents who often didn’t state why they objected to the vaccination. One man told the workers to leave immediately because they were carrying “toxic things.”…