NARRATION: In 1988, energized by the success of the smallpox program, the global public health community moved to tackle another ancient scourge: polio, a killer virus which paralyzed more than 300,000 people that year.
The new campaign surged ahead, and polio was eliminated from 118 countries in only 14 years. But then…
ARCHIVAL (CBS, 6-25-04):
NEWS REPORT: Suddenly the disease is spreading again.
ARCHIVAL (CCTV, 5-5-14):
NEWS REPORT: Religion and suspicion have helped fuel the disease in the North.
NARRATION: In 2003, distrust between Muslim leaders and the Nigerian government spawned a rumor that polio vaccination was a Western ploy to sterilize Muslim youth.
LARRY BRILLIANT: In Nigeria, the imams issued a fatwa against the polio program and in doing so, created an epidemic of polio.
HEIDI LARSON (DIRECTOR, VACCINE CONFIDENCE PROJECT, LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE AND TROPICAL MEDICINE): The impact of this boycott led to reimportation of the virus to nearly 20 countries.
NARRATION: Heidi Larson maps the rumors that can lead to resistance to vaccines. In Nigeria, these stories were as contagious and lethal as the virus.
HEIDI LARSON: This is a map that we put up to mark all the negative vaccine reports that we were getting. The underlying issue was distrust, in a big way. When you have a vaccine that’s brought to your door repeatedly, when you’re not getting many of the other very basic health needs that you feel like you need more, it prompts suspicion.
NARRATION: The Nigerian boycott drove home a hard lesson, that even with scientific advances and a globalized world, the key to an eradication campaign is public trust. And it can disappear in an instant.
ARCHIVAL (WH.GOV, 5-1-11):
PRESIDENT PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda.
ARCHIVAL (NBC, 11-30-14):
ANNE CURRY: The CIA has admitted, it used a fake vaccination program in 2011 to collect blood samples in the search for Osama Bin Laden.
NARRATION: In Pakistan, opposition to the polio program exploded following these reports.
HEIDI LARSON: This was exactly an example of throwing a firecracker in the midst of a highly fertile, suspicious ground and it really set things back.
ARCHIVAL (CNN, 12.19.2012):
NEWS REPORT: A two day killing spree in Pakistan.
ARCHIVAL (AL JAZEERA, 10-7-13):
NEWS NEWS REPORT: Over the past year there have been a number of attacks on health workers distributing the polio vaccine for which the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility.
HEIDI LARSON: Suspicions around CIA involvement in mass vaccination campaigns, have been there for years. A decade ago, I could confidently go to communities and sit with them saying, ‘You know, this is for the best interest of children, this is not a covert effort.’ And I could not say that now.
NARRATION: The polio eradication campaign seems to be back on track.
LARRY BRILLIANT: A lot of people in the world thought that was the end of the polio program and that they would never succeed. It certainly makes you realize the interplay between global politics and disease control.