West Africa polio campaign boycotted by Nigerian states

A mass poliomyelitis vaccination campaign got under way on Monday to immunise 63 million children across west Africa but was boycotted by four predominantly Muslim states in Nigeria, where leaders claim the oral vaccine causes sterility and spreads AIDS.

The west African campaign was intended as a final push to stamp out the disease in the region and is part of the World Health Organization's 15 year drive to halt transmission of the poliomyelitis virus across the world by 2005.

Since its launch in 1988, the campaign has reduced the number of countries where polio is endemic from 125 …