Fake news battles vaccines—and children are caught in the crossfire

In Nigeria’s north central state of Kwara last Wednesday parents besieged schools to cart away their children after rumours of a “killer vaccine” wafted into town. They left work and business to get to the schools; the schools locked the gates on them and called the police. The parents didn’t back down; the schools caved […]

In Nigeria’s north central state of Kwara last Wednesday parents besieged schools to cart away their children after rumours of a “killer vaccine” wafted into town.

They left work and business to get to the schools; the schools locked the gates on them and called the police.

The parents didn’t back down; the schools caved in under mounting pressure to release their students.

The rumour began with word that a “vaccination team accompanied by soldiers” was in town.

Two days before, the same rumour had rocked two other states—Ondo and Rivers.

The week before, almost all the south eastern states of Nigeria fell for the scare.

In the southeastern state of Enugu, rumours of a vaccination team escorted by soldiers forced Naomi Kenneth to her daughter’s school in the neighbourhood of Emene.

“The teachers had to lock the doors of the classes,” Kenneth tells Daily Trust.

“They [vaccinators] were hitting so hard on doors. Some of the older children jumped through windows. Immediately they [vaccinators] left, teachers dismissed the children.”

Her daughter got express holiday for two days after. Mothers in the neighbourhood called their daughters and daughters-in-law to tell them not to let anyone near their children with a vaccine—all and any.

The propaganda of secessionist politics has exploded onto health care in Nigeria—and children bear the brunt.

Schools shut and parents reject vaccines that could keep their children from diseases. The cost is billions of naira wasted, and thousands of unprotected children vulnerable to vaccine-preventable childhood killer diseases.

The battle for Nigerian health officials has shifted from fighting outbreaks with planned immunisation to quelling the anxiety that secessionist propaganda has sparked in millions of minds.

Women scaled school fences in Anambra to cart their children from school amidst rumour of teams forcibly injecting children

Python dance, outbreak, vaccine

Several factors fired up the conspiracy theory: soldiers on “operations” in the south east, disease outbreaks and vaccination.

The group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) makes no bones about wanting an independent Biafra—and it’s brought to mind Nigeria’s three years of brutal Civil War in the late 1960s.

The army goes on routine military operations in parts of the country. When it set up Operation Python Dance II in five south-eastern states, the general officer commanding of the army’s 82 Division, Maj-Gen Adamu Abubakar, said it was to fight crime and criminality, citing kidnappings.

That was in September. A previous operation held last November.

Residents in the south east complained about increased militarization of the region with checkpoints and military obstacles.

The pro-Biafra IPOB, led by a British-Nigerian Nnamdi Kanu, was particularly vocal against the operation, calling it an insult on the sensibilities of the region, which it says has endured years of marginalization and is better off separate from Nigeria.

It saw an ulterior motive in the timing of the operation.

Conflicts broke out between soldiers and southeasterners, especially members of the separatist IPOB. The government declared IPOB a terror organization. Its leader’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Python Dance II was effective in the south-east; it brought Nigeria off the boil of political tension.

The south east and south south are neigbhours—geographically and historically—and support each other. But monkey pox broke out in the south-south state of Bayelsa. And the rumour mill went wild.

Messages circulated on social media and instant messaging, asking people to call their families “not to participate in any free medical care by [the] Nigerian government.

It insisted the plan was to reduce population of the south east.

“They did it in Bayelsa; that’s the result of monkey pox that is killing children right now. It is a virus,” the message noted.

Eleven people were hospitalized then on suspicion of monkey pox, and none died from monkey pox. Weeks later, one man would later kill himself after being treated for the disease.

Screenshot shows warning that’s been spread wide on instant messaging and social media

Misinformation, disinformation

The rumour that persons in military camouflage forcibly vaccinated children with an unknown substance took root in Bayelsa and its neigbhour Rivers, forcing authorities to either shut down schools or ban health outreaches.

Clearing the confusion about the “teams” is critical. Kenneth, who withdrew her daughter from her school in Enugu, speaks of facing men in camouflage.

“The people giving the vaccine didn’t wear military uniform, but they came with escort of [men in] soldiers’ [uniforms], so I don’t know whether those people were really soldiers,” she says.

“By right, they were supposed to go to the management of the school but they didn’t. I just feel they shouldn’t give immunisation in school. They should give with parents’ consent.”

Activities to improve relations with host communities are routinely built into military operations like Python Dance II.

They include anything from sanitation to health talks, but the army draws a line at vaccines, says Col Aminu Iliyasu, deputy director for the army’s public relations.

“The Nigerian Army does not and will never carry out its medical outreaches or vaccination exercises for that matter in schools,” emphasizes Iliyasu.

Burden of disease

As it stands, the rumours could destroy entire immunisation programmes and unleash diseases currently under control—from polio and measles to meningitis, cholera and yellow fever.

Nigeria came close to eliminating polio before a setback in the last year. Now it has gone a whole year without the disease, and stepping up efforts to keep the pace for the next two years.

Teams are known to visit schools and churches to administer polio vaccine drops on children aged under five years. These days, parents consider the teams in front of churches with suspicion.

Vaccination against yellow fever is on, with support from World Health Organisation.

The target: 873,837 people—from children as young as nine months to adults 45 years old—in the states of Kwara and Kogi

Before that, health authorities started vaccinating some 915,000 people to halt cholera spreading through camps for people displaced by Boko Haram in the north east of Nigeria. The last 39 weeks have seen reports of 3,368 cases and 79 deaths.

A separate campaign to vaccinate 33 million children against measles is set to start late October. More than 18,000 cases have been reported in the last 39 weeks; 105 of them died.

Annual mortality rate for measles fell sharpest between 2000 and 2005—from 363 per 100,000 population to around 100. By 2010, it fell further to 7 per 100,000 but has ticked up again to around 30 per 100,000, an online data visualization project shows.

That year, more than 14,000 cases of measles were recorded.

Children born from 2013 to 2016, and who have never taken routine immunisation, are now at more risk of contracting measles, warned the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), while it was preparing for the latest vaccination campaign. The agency coordinates primary health care and routine immunisation in Nigeria.

Outbreaks across the country have surged to 183 in 2016, up from 166 in 2015.

This year alone, more than 16,343 cases of measles have been recorded, meaning nearly every one of Nigeria’s council areas has had a case.

“At the moment, a real polio vaccination is ongoing in some parts of the country and is being impacted negatively,” says Chima Onoka, a technical advisor at NPHCDA.

“Measles vaccination is starting in a few days time ahead of the period of high seasonal transmission and we must protect our children.

“The incorrect message on immunization being spread around is affecting the ongoing and planned activities and billions of naira has been wasted already by rejection caused by the propaganda.

“There are clear threats to national and regional health security that are beyond political, tribal and religious sentiments.”

Mortality related to measles has fallen off over years, but has been rising steadily since 2010

Epidemic season

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control declared the latest outbreak of meningitis over this August. More than 9,800 cases of the disease were reported, and it killed 602 people, mostly children.

The threats don’t stop there. Nigeria’s epidemic season is almost steady as clockwork. Public health officials expect and predict outbreaks each year.

“I am surprised people till now are still saying immunisation is bad. However, I don’t feel people should be forced. People should be convinced,” says Chika Offor, of the Vaccine Network.

The network is among civil society groups that have taken to social media campaigns to counteract the growing anti-vaccine propaganda through tweets and Facebook posts.

“You can’t stop the vaccination because people are murmuring, you can’t stop people murmuring. Otherwise you will find you won’t be able to vaccinate one person,” says Offor.

“You can’t because of a few stop a whole vaccination nationwide. It doesn’t make sense.”

Civil society groups and public health authorities are stepping up to quell the anti-vaccine propaganda, and they have to make it work or face some tough times.

Without that, “it will be a crisis when the vaccination [for measles] starts,” predicts Diana Eyo-Enoette, project director at Envision Global Care Foundation.

She suggests civil society groups stepping up their game “in terms of sensitization and advocacy” and targeting politicians.

“Let’s get them to stop playing with the lives of Nigerians for politics. The beneficiaries need to understand. Ignorance is why people run away [from taking immunisation].”

Immediately after Kenneth’s ordeal at her daughter’s school in Enugu, her sister-in-law, a journalist 470km away in Abuja, got the call to reject vaccine for her infant, but ignored it.

“It is important to manage information well and to be careful not to propagate crisis. The consequences are huge,” says Onoka.

“Our children and grandchildren are at risk and need our protection and prayers.”

Or they could face death from countless diseases that could all have been prevented.