'Our Polio Test Was Conclusive' - DR Haruna Kaita
Weekly Trust (Kaduna)
INTERVIEW
March 6, 2004
Posted to the web March 8, 2004
Kaduna
http://allafrica.com/stories/200403080104.html
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
op****tunity 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 in 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 re****t 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 im****t them into the country. So this has even strengthen
our resolve that those who im****ted 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 im****ting 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 wi****ng 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 bury that fact from the people. Would the
im****ters 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.
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 countries 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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