As the minister of Finance prepares to read this year's national budget on Thursday, the ministry of Health has called for an increase in taxes on tobacco in order to cut down on smoking and reduce thousands of health complications that tobacco causes each year.

The ministry of Health argues that an increase in tax usually forces smokers to quit; it reduces the uptake and use of tobacco products by the youth; and it ultimately lowers consumption rates among continuing users.

Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, the minister of Health, says that every 10 per cent increase in price leads to 8 per cent decrease in consumption. Half of this decrease is attributed to adults quitting smoking and the youth not taking up tobacco products. The other half is due to people who continue to smoke.

Last year, Maria Kiwanuka, the minister of Finance, increased excise duty on cigarettes to Shs 32,000 from Shs 22,000 for Soft cup (whose local content is more than 70 per cent of its constituents), to Shs 35,000 from Shs 25,000 for other soft cup and to Shs 69,000 from Shs 55,000 for Hinge lid respectively.

Rugunda said "taxes on tobacco should be raised annually as this serves the dual purpose of promoting public health and generating more revenue. Government should also allocate a proportion of tax revenue to tobacco control and other health-related programmes."

Rugunda was speaking during a pre-event to commemorate world no tobacco day celebrated on May 31 every year. The day is intended to encourage a 24-hour abstinence period from all forms of tobacco consumption across the globe.

This year's theme was, 'raise taxes on tobacco products; lower deaths.' Dr Possy Mugenyi, the manager of the Center for Tobacco Control in Africa (CTCA), said failing to raise tobacco taxes means that smoking rates fall at a much slower rate.

Uganda still lags behind the World Health Organization's (WHO) tax benchmark of 70 per cent.

Statistics from CTCA indicate that nearly 13,500 people die every year in Uganda due to tobacco-related diseases. Moreover, tobacco is related to 71 per cent of lung cancer, 42 per cent of chronic respiratory diseases and 10 per cent of heart and blood vessel diseases. Dr Sheila Ndyanabangi, the health ministry's tobacco focal point person, says that every day, about 80 youth experiment with tobacco products and more than half of these smoke their first cigarette.

Approximately, 75 per cent of all youth in Uganda have used smokeless tobacco products such as kuber, she said. Smokeless tobacco is a known cause of oral and pancreatic cancer. Currently, the Tobacco Control Bill 2014 is undergoing public debate. The bill proposes an increase in the tax of tobacco products, prohibition of the sale and importation of duty free tobacco products, a ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and the ban of selling tobacco products to minors among others.

However, a joint statement from tobacco producing companies in the country, which includes British American Tobacco (BAT), Ugandan Tobacco Services Ltd and Continental Tobacco (U) Ltd, notes that if the bill is passed in its present form, government is likely to lose Shs 100bn in revenue.

"The law must make a distinction between the products sought to be regulated and the individual corporate entity that enjoys fundamental rights and freedoms. The law should not seek to ban legitimate trade activities," reads the statement.

The Tobacco Control bill was supposed to have been passed into law in 2012.

source: www.observer.ug

Some promising news lies in the pages of a recent study by the Health Ministry: Hypertension, one of Indonesia's most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs), has decreased in prevalence between 2007 and 2013, according to the Ministry's data. While new measuring systems may slightly skew the results, the study suggests that increased awareness about NCDs as serious health threats has contributed to a reduction in new hypertension cases.

Unfortunately, NCDs remain the number one cause of death in Indonesia, and worldwide. They continue to kill more than 36 million people annually, with nearly 80 percent of NCD deaths — that's 29 million — occurring in low- and low-middle income countries like Indonesia. Each year, more than 2.5 million people in Southeast Asia die from a non-communicable disease. Why is such a serious health crisis not a major public priority?

Maybe NCDs would gain more attention if we understood them as more than a health threat: They are also a tremendous economic burden. In Indonesia, where the prevalence of infectious diseases like bacterial diarrhea, typhoid, dengue, and malaria is also high, NCDs place an additional strain on an over-burdened and underfunded healthcare system. NCDs increase poverty, impede development, threaten health systems and are a major cause of disability and health inequality, according to the ASEAN Noncommunicable Disease Network in 2013.

NCDs are also largely preventable. The majority of premature deaths in Indonesia could be prevented with lifestyle changes. Tobacco use, the harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diet, and a sedentary lifestyle are primary risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases, and diabetes — diseases that account for 80 percent of NCDs worldwide, according to WHO. Indonesians are living longer, and the middle class is growing. But this does not mean Indonesians are getting healthier. The aging population faces a host of chronic diseases that will continue to threaten Indonesia's development.

But change is possible. It is in our capacity to be healthier. We can reduce risk factors for NCDs by limiting tobacco and alcohol use. We can improve our diet by cutting back on salt, saturated fat and sugar, and we can incorporate more physical activity into our daily lives. In fact, according to a report by Richard Horton published in The Lancet (2013), such changes may prevent more than 37 million deaths worldwide by 2025.

But in order to promote lifestyle change on a national scale — as well as effectively monitor and treat patients already suffering from NCDs — Indonesia needs a healthcare revolution. Since 2006, disease predominance has shifted from communicable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis (TB) to NCDs.

Indonesia needs a clinical approach to NCDs that differs from that of acute illnesses. Intervention must be holistic; it must prioritize self-management, long-term treatment, and palliative care. New innovations in self-screening, for example, will help patients to monitor their own bodies for warning signs and help doctors to detect disease earlier for more effective treatment. Innovations in imaging technologies will improve detection and intervention procedures and increase NCD patient survival rates.

Collaboration is key to the healthcare revolution: Technological innovations from private companies provide crucial contributions to the efforts of healthcare providers and local national governments to provide appropriate healthcare. Those innovations, applied to the entire cycle of healthcare — from prevention, screening and diagnosis through to treatment and observation — should focus on combating NCDs.

In 2012, Philips Healthcare hosted a series of seven roundtable discussions on non-communicable diseases in cities across Southeast Asia. This was followed in 2013 with the joining of policy thinkers, academics, and clinicians to establish the ASEAN NCD Network, which published a report highlighting effective case studies in NCD prevention and treatment in our region.

Three programs identified by the Network are operating in Indonesia: The "See & Treat" Cervical Cancer Screening program, for example, has introduced the Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) method to detect cervical cancer. This allows healthcare providers to detect pre-cancerous cells with the naked eye using a common household ingredient: vinegar. In a country where a woman dies as a result of cervical cancer every hour, the impact of this affordable and easily implemented innovation will be unprecedented. In fact, over a 15-year period, a similar program in India resulted in a 31 percent reduction in cervical cancer deaths.

Then there is the Ramadhan Diabetes Camps, initiated by Aman Pulungan for the comprehensive management of Type 1 diabetes among children. With initial funding provided by the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF), Aman and his colleagues helped to facilitate training for doctors and nurses in T1DM and Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA), roadshows at schools and family events, diabetes camps, and parent support groups and mass media campaigns to increase awareness about pediatric diabetes.

This is especially important during the month of Ramadhan: Diabetic children who wish to fast can learn how to count calories, inject the right dosage of insulin, and properly monitor their blood sugar levels.

Finally, in a partnership between the Indonesian Society of Endocrinology (Perkeni), Indonesian Diabetes Association (Persadia), Indonesian Diabetes Educators Association (Pedi) and Directorate of NCD Control for the Health Ministry, the Community Diabetes Strengthening Program seeks to improve the capacity of preventing, detecting and treating diabetes. Healthcare professionals interested in diabetes care, including general practitioners, internists practicing in provincial or district hospitals, and health educators in local hospitals and community health centers (Puskesmas) are identified for intensive diabetes care training.

These successful NCD prevention and treatment programs share several factors in common: They demonstrate the importance of partnerships, community ownership, momentum, sustainability, flexible financing and scalability. Of course, all innovations need to be locally relevant. We cannot copy-paste screening and treatment procedures from well-resourced, developed countries. Healthcare providers need innovations that are practical in Indonesia.

Indonesia's Health Ministry has made a commitment to supporting the prevention and early detection of NCDs. Insufficient infrastructure and human resources — particularly the lack of specialists — remain challenges, as does a lack of sufficient private sector involvement. The ineffective deployment of healthcare funding must be addressed, and incentives provided for the private sector, in order to solicit more investments in NCD prevention and treatment.

The government must prioritize health in policymaking; politicians should focus on national wellbeing and galvanize all sectors to combat NCDs. By addressing NCD impacts, Indonesia can lead the healthcare revolution, at home and across ASEAN.

source: www.thejakartapost.com

The World Health Organization (WHO) is seeking ways to prevent obesity after the new findings revealed by a recent study. The new study that came out along with the recommendations from the WHO says that the government should definitely slow down the obesity epidemic by supervising the fast food globally.

WHO Feels that Government Should Have Greater Control

The organization believes that the government should have more control, because if they did, they would have been able to reverse the growing problem of obesity in the world. They consider chips, burgers and also drink as the major contributors to obesity problem. Obesity can result in long term health issues like heart disease, diabetes and also cancer.

Robert De Vogli from California who led the study believes that until major steps are not taken in order to avoid and prevent obesity there will be devastating consequences for all governments, public health and also growth of the world.

The WHO wants the government to be proactive by doing something to prevent the obesity problem until it is just rampant, costing much more for the health, individuals and even society. Prevention is the only key as many diets fail and it gets highly difficult for people to lose weight after they have gained it.

Resourceful Policies

Few policies that might be really helpful include the sale of healthy and fresh food, making it less profitable for people to sell processed foods and drinks. Controlling the advertising of fast food products might also help.

Areas with Highest Obesity Concerns

The deregulation and globalization affected areas saw an increase in the number of fast food take out times on the basis of per person. The places that gained the most were Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Ireland with countries like Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and also Greece, which had few transactions due to strict rules and regulations.

This depiction by WHO and its Department of Nutrition proves how government can be important to its people's health.

There is a high need of policies that could help people in several areas, including social welfare, education, health, industry and even agriculture. It is not always the role of fast food; exercise and other activities are also important in maintaining good health.

The recent studies on obesity shows that being overweight right from the kindergarten can lead to obesity in teenage and even in adulthood and this explains why parents and also children should be extra careful about their diet and also health from the early years.

source: stixs.in

MEASLES outbreaks in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia have prompted an urgent reminder for people travelling to South East Asia to check they and their children are fully immunised for measles before their departure.

NSW Health director of communicable diseases Vicky Sheppeard said measles is highly contagious among people who are not fully immunised.

"Measles is spread through coughing and sneezing, and is one of the most contagious infections known," Dr Sheppeard said.

"Complications can range from diarrhoea and ear infections to swelling of the brain and pneumonia."

In recent weeks there have been five cases of measles reported in NSW.

Two were associated with travel to Vietnam, one to Indonesia and one to the Philippines.

In Australia, 41 per cent of cases in 2014 have been imported from overseas, mostly from the Philippines.

"NSW Health urges everyone planning on travelling to South East Asia to ensure they are up to date with their vaccinations before they travel," Dr Sheppeard said.

"Anyone born during or after 1966 should have two doses of measles vaccine (at least 4 weeks apart). Even one dose gives around 90 per cent protection."

Children should receive measles vaccine at 12 months and a second dose at 18 months of age.

Babies who are travelling before their vaccines are due can be given the first dose as early as nine months of age.

Children over 18 months who have not had their second dose of measles vaccine can be vaccinated now.

People returning from the South East Asia should be on the look out for symptoms of measles, which starts with a fever, cough, sore red eyes and a runny nose for several days before a blotchy rash appears.

People who have these symptoms should see a doctor — but call ahead to protect others in the waiting room.

source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au

The annual World Health Assembly — the meeting of representatives of the 194 countries that belong to the World Health Organization — ended Saturday. Each year, the Assembly defines policy and sets out goals for the coming 12 months in a series of voted-on resolutions. This year it zeroed in on antibiotic resistance, upping the ante on the WHO's previous efforts to fight the emergence of resistance globally. The biggest initiative: A global action plan that the agency expects to have drafted by next January, in order to have it approved by all the levels of the organization so that it can be voted on next May.

From the WHO's website, here's the resolution committing to the action plan — notable chiefly for the schedule it sets out — and here's the key background document, which emerged from the March meeting of the WHO's Executive Board.

The WHO — which can only persuade governments to act but has little power to compel — has tried to raise concern about resistance in the past. It issued a sobering report quantifying global rates of resistance in April. It also made resistance the topic of its annual World Health Day in 2011 and wrote a "global strategy" for containment in 2001. But it admits in this new effort that it made little impact: "WHO's publication in 2001 of a global strategy for containment of antimicrobial resistance has not resulted in a widely accepted global action plan, and a lack of awareness of the impact of such resistance persists in all sectors."

The key next steps the agency envisions for the coming global action plan look like this.

1. Reaching beyond public health agencies to draw in ministries dealing with animal health, development, and economies.
2. Pushing national governments to write and commit to funding national plans for controlling resistance.
3. Strengthening lab and surveillance capacity in each member country and sharing data across borders.
4. Improving regulations addressing inappropriate use of antibiotics, and strengthening control of counterfeit medicines.
5. Working with the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health to "to limit antibiotic use, as well as to stop antibiotic use for non-therapeutic purposes, in livestock and agriculture."
6. Boosting infection-prevention and hand-hygiene efforts within countries.
7. Looking for tech innovations in diagnostic testing as well as new drug development.

Those are important points — especially the emphasis on agriculture, and on making sure that countries don't just make plans, but commit funds.

A paper published during the Assembly (when this proposal was on the table but not yet voted-in) contends though that the new initiative doesn't go far enough. Jeremy Farrar and Mark Woolhouse argue in Nature that the international response to resistance has been "feeble":

The WHO accepted only last month that antimicrobial resistance might fall within the remit of the International Health Regulations, which were implemented in 2007 to deal with events such as influenza pandemics. The regulations' extension to antimicrobial resistance would oblige the 196 signatory countries to carry out effective surveillance and timely reporting for outbreaks of resistance.

Better surveillance is essential. But it will not provide solutions; many calls to action on antimicrobial resistance have been made over the past 20 years, but there has been too little progress. The WHO missed the opportunity to provide leadership on what is urgently needed to really make a difference.

They call for the bold step of creating an international, intergovernmental body to organize evidence and frame policy, similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:

In many ways, antimicrobial resistance is similar to climate change. Both are processes operating on a global scale for which humans are largely responsible. In anti­microbial resistance, as in climate change, the practices of one country affect many others.

One key difference is that, for climate change, technologies exist to produce energy without burning fossil fuels, and investments and incentives will make them practical and affordable. Alternatives to antimicrobials... are still, at best, experimental. More research on alternatives is urgently needed, coupled with efforts by industry, academia and governments to market them in a scalable way.

There have also already been internationally agreed, evidence-based targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions. There are no global targets for reducing antimicrobial use and no real understanding of how to set them. We do not even know what, if any, level of antimicrobial usage will be sustainable in the long term.

The threat of anthropogenic climate change led to the creation in 1988 of the IPCC. Despite its limitations, the panel is arguably the most successful attempt in history to empower scientific consensus to inform global policy and practice...

We believe that similar global approaches should be attempted to address problems in public health. There is a need for a powerful panel to marshal the data to inform and encourage implementation of policies that will forestall the loss of effective drugs to resistance, and to promote and facilitate the development of alternatives — a panel akin to the IPCC, and the analogous Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services founded in 2012. An intergovernmental panel on antimicrobial resistance (IPAMR) must have the same firm foundation on the best available science and potentially an even stronger mandate for action.

It's a striking proposal and, given enduring suspicion of climate change, a possibly risky argument. But I can't disagree with their assessment that policies that could affect the emergence of resistance have been hobbled by timidity and a lack of political will. It would be extraordinary to see something that bold happen — but bold is what it might take, to arrest resistance before it forces the antibiotic era to a close.

source: www.wired.com

The World Health Assembly continued progress Friday, approving plans to better incorporate palliative care, expand inclusion of the needs of those affected by autism, improve access to health care for those with disabilities, better integrate the use of traditional medicine and raise awareness of psoriasis.

Traditional medicine

The Health Assembly approved WHO's traditional medicine strategy 2014–2023. Traditional medicine covers a wide variety of therapies and practices which vary from country to country and region to region. The strategy aims to build the knowledge base for national policies and strengthen quality assurance, safety, proper use and effectiveness of traditional and complementary medicine through regulation. It also aims to promote universal health coverage by integrating traditional and complementary medicine services into health care service delivery and home care.

Disability action plan

A new WHO global disability action plan 2014–2021 aims to improve the health and quality of life of the one billion people around the world with disabilities by improving their access to health care and creating new and strengthening existing services and technologies that help them acquire or restore skills and functions. It also aims to strengthen data and research.

People with disabilities have the same general health care needs as others, but are three times more likely to be denied health care and four times more likely to be treated badly in health facilities. One in seven people worldwide has a disability. As people live longer and chronic diseases increase, more people are likely to develop disabilities. Road traffic crashes, falls, violence, natural disasters and conflict, unhealthy diet and substance abuse can also lead to disability.

Autism spectrum disorders

The Health Assembly urged Member States to include the needs of individuals affected by autism spectrum and other developmental disorders in policies and programmes related to child and adolescent health and development and mental health. This means increasing the capacity of health and social care systems to provide services for individuals with autism spectrum disorders and for their families and shifting the focus of care from long-stay health facilities towards non-residential services in the community. It also means improving health surveillance systems to capture data on autism spectrum disorders and ensuring countries are better able to diagnose and treat autism spectrum disorders.

The resolution highlights the need for the WHO Secretariat to help strengthen countries' capacities to address autism spectrum and other developmental disorders; facilitate resource mobilization; engage with autism-related networks; and monitor progress. All efforts will be conducted in alignment with the WHO Mental health action plan 2013–2020.

Autism spectrum disorders comprise a range of development disorders which include autism, childhood disintegrative disorder and Asperger syndrome. Worldwide, most people with autism spectrum disorders and their families do not receive any care from health and social care systems.

Psoriasis

A resolution on psoriasis encourages Member States to raise awareness about the disease and to advocate against the stigma experienced by so many people who suffer from it. It requests the WHO Secretariat to draw attention to the public health impact of psoriasis and publish a global report on the disease, emphasizing the need for greater research and identifying successful strategies for integrating the management of psoriasis into existing services for noncommunicable diseases by the end of 2015.

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory disease characterised by scaly, red skin lesions. People with psoriasis have relatively higher risks of heart disease, stroke, hypertension and diabetes. Studies have documented higher rates of depression and anxiety compared with the general population.

Strengthening palliative care as a component of comprehensive care

Today's resolution emphasizes that the need for palliative care services will continue to grow – partly because of the rising prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and the ageing of populations everywhere. The WHO global action plan for the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases 2013–2020, endorsed by the Health Assembly in May 2013, includes palliative care among the policy options proposed to Member States and in its global monitoring framework.

source: www.who.int

The World Health Organization opened its 67th annual assembly on Monday in Geneva.

The event is expected to draw more than 3,000 delegates from WHO's 194 member states for six days of discussion on key global issues.

A recent survey by Gallup showed that 72 percent of the public has a good opinion of WHO and its partner UNICEF.

The event will cover efforts for preventing and controlling noncommunicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic lung disease. The participants will also discuss a new global strategy for preventing and controlling tuberculosis and propose efforts for improving the health of patients with viral hepatitis.

The assembly will also work on drafting an action plan for newborn health. The WHO's global strategy for maternal and young child nutrition will also be reviewed.

The assembly will also be making efforts toward the Millennium Development Goals and a post-2015 agenda.

The tackling of antimicrobial drug resistance, access to essential medicines, medicine regulation, the management of autism and protection against vaccine-preventable diseases are also on the agenda.

Shigeru Omi, the president of the 66th World Health Assembly, will open the meeting, at which delegates will elect a new president and officers.

source: vaccinenewsdaily.com

The US government has told a group of local health educators that it will no longer use immunisation programs as a cover for espionage.

But the damage from previous such programs is difficult to undo, and distaste for the US, exacerbated by drone strikes, means the announcement has more symbolic value for Western audiences than impact on the ground. Luckily, local efforts and leadership in affected areas are making progress.

Three regions – Somalia, Nigeria and Pakistan – have armed groups openly hostile to public health efforts, especially immunisation. But only in the latter is this due to the CIA's actions.

Radical groups in Pakistan

The most radical threat to public health by armed extremists is by anti-government elements in north-west Pakistan. Attacks on health workers and security personnel protecting them have led to more than 60 deaths over the past three years.

The escalation in assaults and murders of vaccinators can be traced directly to the May 2011 U.S. Special Forces assault on the Abbottabad compound inhabited by Osama bin Laden and his family. Three months after the raid, in which bin Laden was killed, the Guardian revealed the CIA had used a Pakistani doctor to carry out a fake hepatitis B vaccine effort to get DNA samples from children living in the compound.

Combined with anger about continuing drone attacks, this episode led to a ban by the Pakistan Taliban in July 2012 on all forms of immunisation in areas they control in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (affecting mainly North and South Waziristan districts).

Around 350,000 children in contested areas are unable to access immunisation and other public health services. And there's been a spike in paralytic polio cases in Pakistan this year, with 66 cases reported so far (compared with only 14 in the same period last year).

But this spike is merely the most visible impact of the Pakistan Taliban's ban on vaccinations; polio surveillance is very effective compared with surveillance for other diseases.

Other negative health impacts include women health workers (the bedrock of Pakistan's community health services) being unable to work for fear of violence. This means the coverage of health programs for women and children is now very low. And the government has closed 450 community health centres in FATA since 2010 due to the unwillingness of personnel (especially women) to work in the region.

What is being done?

Bans on vaccination and other public health programs are fuelled by a mix of political, tactical, and quasi-religious motives. The link made by the Pakistan Taliban between drone attacks and child immunisation programs, for instance, is spurious but holds the international health community to hostage.

Many in the global Islamic community have been active in countering claims that the polio vaccination, for instance, is "anti-Islam". The Islamic Advisory Group on Polio, based at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, has been the most active.

At a meeting in Jeddah this year, the chairman emphatically denounced what he termed "fallacious and distorted fatwas (edicts) and claims" against polio vaccines and strongly condemned violent attacks against polio vaccinators. The IAG has developed pro-vaccination fatwas and disseminated them to local Islamic leaders in the hope of countering the radicals' propaganda.

Another approach has been the use of innovative communication strategies to mobilise community demand for vaccination. Messages are being transmitted by respected community leaders, mullahs and teachers.

Local political leadership is vital because it can be transformative. In the state of Peshawar in Pakistan, where violence had disrupted many immunisation campaigns, Imran Khan's government deployed 4,000 security personnel and banned motorcycles on 12 consecutive Sundays to vaccinate more than seven million children against nine diseases without any violent incidents.

Likewise, discrete negotiations between the governor of Kandahar province in Afghanistan with local Taliban leaders led to high vaccination rates and the elimination of polio from the province in late 2012.

Local power

The important lesson from Afghanistan is the importance of keeping polio prevention and other life-saving public health programs politically neutral.

While former president Hamid Karzai demanded high performance and accountability from provincial governors, he maintained a low public profile and avoided politicising the polio vaccination program.

The White House announcement will contribute to building that neutrality in challenging settings such as north-west Pakistan. What's now needed is a concerted campaign by communications specialists and religious scholars to convince communities that vaccinating children is not just "a good idea" but an obligation.

Hostile militant groups elsewhere

In south and central Somalia, Al Shabaab has banned all humanitarian agencies, including Islamic Relief access to territories it controls, leading to the cessation of all child health programs.

More than 300,000 children were un-vaccinated for over three years, resulting in a 2013 polio outbreak that paralysed 194 children and spilt into the neighbouring countries of Ethiopia and Kenya. Al Shabaab's ban on vaccination also led to widespread measles epidemics throughout the Horn of Africa.

In north-east Nigeria, the extreme militant group Boko Haram has attacked health facilities that provide immunisation and killed health workers, claiming that vaccination is a Western plot to sterilise girls and infect them with AIDS.

Nigeria has long been a stronghold of anti-vaccination propaganda. In 2003, the political and religious leaders of three northern states called on parents not to allow their children to be immunised. They argued vaccines could be contaminated with anti-fertility agents, HIV, and cancerous agents.

The result was thousands of children getting of new infections, and the outbreak of polio eventually spread abroad as far as Indonesia.

source: theconversation.com