'Our Polio Test Was Conclusive' - Nigerian MD

[Guest guest]

'Our Polio Test Was Conclusive' - DR Haruna Kaita

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Trust (Kaduna)

 

INTERVIEW

March 6, 2004

Posted to the web March 8, 2004

 

Kaduna

 

Dr. Haruna Kaita is the JNI scientists who conducted the test on the polio

vaccines in India, and he is also the Dean, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences,

Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. He spoke to Musa Umar Kazaure of our Kano Bureau

on the outcome of their test shortly after he defended the result before the

federal government experts in Kaduna. Excerpts.

 

WT:You are among the JNI scientists who went to India to conduct various tests

on the controversial OPV which was alleged to have contaminants. What was the

outcome of your tests?

 

 

Dr Kaita: Well, let me start first by thanking JNI for giving me the opportunity

to serve humanity because what we did was not for the Muslim alone or the

Christian alone, but for the generality of Nigerians who are prone to having

these vaccines. Now on the Polio vaccine test result, I want to tell you that

when I left Nigeria to India to conduct those test, I was praying and hoping

that the tests will come out negative, that the vaccines were actually safe for

our children. I prayed that I found no contaminants in them because I know how

sensitive it will be if there is any contaminant especially with the posture of

the government and some of my colleagues who are in league with government for

obvious reasons.

 

I spent about 23 days in India mostly in laboratories conducting analysis on the

samples of oral Polio vaccines I took along, using some of the most

sophisticated laboratory equipments in the world which were even cited and

recommended by WHO as number one. It is WHO that said GC-MS is the best

equipment for discovering contaminants in drugs because of its sensitivity and

its is state of the art in the world. So I used that machine and used

Radio-Immuno assay in conducting the tests.

 

WT: What was the result you got from the tests.

 

Dr Kaita: The results were very interesting because I and some other

professional colleagues who are Indians who were in the Lab could not believe

the discovery. I thought at first that something was wrong with my calculations,

them we repeated it again and again, and again, it kept giving us the same

results of contaminants. Some of the Indian scientists who were in the lab also

wondered how come a polio vaccine had such contaminants that were not suppose to

be there. Some of the things we discovered in the vaccines are harmful, toxic;

some have direct effect on human reproductive system. But I was surprised when

one of the federal government doctors was telling me something contrary to what

I have learnt, studied, taught and is the common knowledge of all pharmaceutical

scientist, that estrogen cannot induce anti-fertility response on human. That is

the most absurd thing I ever heard from a learned person who said he is a

professor. I am a professional i n my chosen field, I am a professional

pharmacist, I am an authority when it comes to drug, and here is somebody

telling me that I don't know the biological or pharmacological effect of a drug

substance in human body. I found that argument very disturbing and ridiculous.

 

WT: Why should the manufacturers of these vaccines include these substances when

they know that it could easily be detected.

 

Dr Kaita: That is the problem. Number one, these manufacturers or promoters of

these harmful things have a secret agenda which only further research can

reveal. Secondly they have always taken us in the third world for granted,

thinking we don't have the capacity, knowledge and equipments to conduct test

that would reveal such contaminants. And very unfortunately they also have

people to defend their atrocities within our mist, and worst still some of these

are suppose to be our own professionals who we stomach rely on to protect our

interest.

 

WT: Were the government team not satisfied with the procedure you used in the

test or what was their problem with your result.

 

Dr Kaita: My presentation before the JNI enlarged committee was purely academic,

because WHO representatives were there, UNICEF, and all stakeholders, we invited

everybody, we did not hide our report as they did to their (government's) own,

we circulated it to everybody for further analysis because we were sure of our

results. Let anybody interested go and vet the protocol we used, all the

substances we discovered we gave them photocopies, to NAFDAC, WHO,UNICEF, USAID

and all the stakeholders. Unlike their own which they continue to keep secret

from the public because they know it is the same with ours.

 

WT: But after your presentation, were you able to convince them of the

authenticity of your tests result.

 

Dr Kaita: Well, finally I had to define to them what a fake drug is, and

concluded that the Oral Polio Vaccine is nothing but a fake drug too, and what

do NAFDAC do to fake drugs, they burn them and prosecute those who import them

into the country. So this has even strengthen our resolve that those who

imported this fake drug in the name of Polio Vaccines must be prosecuted like

any other criminals apprehended by NAFDAC. We are no more calling for their

stoppage but for their prosecution because they are importing into Nigeria fake

drugs in the guise of polio vaccine because they contain substances which are

not suppose to be in them, and that is what amounts to fake drug. They don't

have NAFDAC batch numbers, and they are contaminated with toxic substances.

 

WT: So would you say the meeting endorsed your result even though the federal

government team still ask for another test in conjunction with your team of

scientist.

 

Dr Kaita: Our own test is conclusive, we are sure of our results, they can go to

anywhere in the world to verify it if they like. When I made my presentation

before all the stakeholders, they asked all the questions they want to ask, and

I defended the results, and it was agreed by all the people present, including

the federal government team for the first time, that the vaccines contained

contaminants. They only argue that all those batches of vaccine that were

contaminated have been exhausted, and that new ones have been ordered by the

federal government, so any state that wishing to still verify the safety or

otherwise of the new ones should go to the cold stores of NPI at designated

places in the states to collect them for testing. So now they agreed that the

vaccines they have been giving to our children for the past 4years when the

polio campaign started were contaminated, but what is the government going to do

about those who have been trying to bur y that fact from the people. Would the

importers of such contaminated be left to go free? What plans has the government

put in place to help the children who have given these toxic and contaminated

vaccines in case they start reacting to them? Are we going to allow this to be

swept again under the carpet like the Kano MININGITIS Trovan test just because

the children involved are from poor parents? God will not leave the perpetrators

of this crime against children in Nigeria to go free if the government refuses

to act.

 

Relevant Links

 

West Africa

Nigeria

Health and Medicine

 

 

 

WT: Dr. Kaita, as a pharmaceutical scientist, what do you make of these vaccines

generally, because this polio discovery has thrown a blanket suspicion on

virtually all the vaccines administered on our children

 

Dr Kaita: Let me make something clear, I am not against vaccination per se

because there are genuine vaccines that help prevents diseases, but when a fake

drug is brought in disguised as a vaccine, we have obligation to kick against

it. Professor Emiritus Shehu himself will bare witness to this if he recall the

incidence of CSM (Meningitis) immunization campaign in an area called Mayobelwa

in former Gongola State . The communities were given vaccines for protection

against the CSM, but what happened? After just a few weeks, there was a massive

outbreak unprecedented in the history of the country there, and it was mostly

those who were given the vaccines that were affected in that out break. Even

himself, the Professor, said at that time that he could not explain the

phenomenon, but we know now from recent discoveries that those vaccines were

carrying a virulent that induced the disease in those vaccinated. There are

other instances in other third world cou ntries like Philippines, Mexico and so

on. This is what is casting doubts on the vaccines brought for immunization on

people in the third world. And for your information, even America has stopped

the use of OPV, and many western countries have also stopped it because they

discovered that it causes the polio that it is suppose to protect people from.

 

 

 

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