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The government of Nigeria today launched a massive vaccination campaign in the northern state of Borno in response to news that two children there had been paralyzed by wild-type polio virus. [...] Much of Borno is under control of the ruthless terrorist group Boko Haram, vaccinators have been unable to reach hundreds of thousands of children, and the insurgency has disrupted surveillance for the virus, which appears to have been circulating undetected for years.
[...] CDC scientists quickly sequenced viral isolates from the two cases. Both viruses are closely related to one last seen in Borno in 2011, suggesting that polio has been circulating undetected there for 5 years.
Based on the small percent of polio infections that result in paralytic disease, the estimated number of people infected with poliovirus in the region would be between 200-2000.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/polio-reappears-nigeria-triggering-massive-response
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poliomyelitis#Signs_and_symptoms
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Thursday August 18 2016, @09:29AM
Have you heard the saying: "the cure is worse than the disease"?
Killing people on the chance they may spread a horrible disease is one of those cases.
Quarantines and vaccinations are known to work. There is no need to kill anybody over it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 19 2016, @02:48AM
Quarantines and vaccinations are known to work where we can implement them, that is, in the civilized world.
These people don't obey any quarantine, not that anybody has imposed one on the regions. The borders are uncontrolled.
These people don't get vaccinations. They are far too unruly. This isn't like a few people north of San Francisco, far from any disease risk, deciding that it doesn't make sense. It's people right in the thick of the disease who couldn't give a fuck. They'd rather go rape children, bomb schools, and run around with weapons like the AK-47.
If we were talking about polio in South Korea or Iceland or even Uruguay, then I'd agree with you. Killing valuable people is not an appropriate way to eliminate disease. (well, not this one -- I'm sure science fiction has plenty of fantasy diseases that would lead to a different conclusion) When the problem is stubborn failure in negative-value parts of the world like Nigeria and Pakistan, it's obvious that the only viable solution involves killing. Ten million degrees will eliminate the virus.