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posted by janrinok on Wednesday August 17 2016, @07:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-CAN-blame-the-terrorists dept.

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


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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday August 18 2016, @06:31PM

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 18 2016, @06:31PM (#389679) Journal

    You are probably understating the case. Slavery isn't a universal primitive custom, but it seems extremely widespread, which LOTS of variation. To assert that it didn't previously exist in Nigeria you would need to prove it, because the presence seems to be the default condition. I'm not aware that the Inuit kept slaves, or the Tibetans. This could be ignorance on my part, or it could be that the living conditions were so severe that slaves couldn't be supported. Or it could just not have been the custom, There were places were it wasn't. In those places they tended to kill rather than enslave prisoners of war.

    As to how old the custom is... I doubt that it preceded agriculture. But it seems to have appeared soon after settlements worth raiding appeared.

    There's also the question of "What's a slave?". The old Greek custom what that anyone with an especially valuable skill should be mutilated so that he couldn't seek his fortune elsewhere. I'm not sure whether that is or isn't slavery. I believe the Celts also practiced the same custom, it may have been widespread, and it's just that I'm ignorant of its existence elsewhere. And in that case it could extend back into the Neolithic.

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