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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The fallacies of the faithful -Rajeev GR

The fallacies of the faithful -Rajeev GR

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published Published on Jul 9, 2016   modified Modified on Jul 9, 2016
-The Hindu

Why are children in Kerala’s Muslim-dominated Kozhikode and Malappuram districts dying of diphtheria? Propaganda by orthodox Muslim community leaders and alternative medicine practitioners that vaccination is un-Islamic is the main cause, reports Rajeev G.R.

Her years of clinical experience had not prepared her for that damp, rainy night when death lingered in the air inside the operation theatre. As Mohammad Afzaz (14) desperately gasped for air, he told her, “You do the surgery fast, just let me breathe.” The Class IX student, afflicted with diphtheria, died within hours after the surgery on the morning of June 23.

That he would have been alive if administered with a simple vaccine is not lost on Beena Oommen, Associate Professor, ENT, Government Medical College, Kozhikode, who performed the surgery. She knew she needed to hurry if Afzaz were to have any chance of survival, rushing to perform the operation without all the protective gear for fear of losing time. “I performed the surgery in a few minutes. His airway was clear. And he looked at me with thankful eyes. But the toxins in the body killed the poor boy in six hours,” says Dr. Oommen, recollecting that night, and turning emotional, “Who is responsible for his death? The ignorant parents or those who talk against immunisation?”

The young doctor who was tasked with certifying Afzaz’s death, Mohammed Niyas, Senior Resident at the hospital, was just as disturbed. In a Facebook post, he wrote angrily: “I cursed all the vaccine hate-mongers in Kerala a thousand times in my mind as I was looking at him, my helplessness hid behind my face mask. I thought of blaming the parents for not vaccinating their child, but soon realised that it was not their fault. We have failed as a society, to educate people about vaccines and expose the anti-vaccine mafia in our State.”

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The Hindu, 9 July, 2016, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/kerala-muslims-and-diphtheria/article8824851.ece?homepage=true


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