Measles in Zim

[Hermes]

Religious objections to vaccination have lead to an outbreak of measles in Zimbabwe, killing 70 children.

@News24 - 2010-09-23

Harare - A measles outbreak has claimed the lives of 70 children in Zimbabwe over the past two weeks, mostly among families from apostolic sects that shun vaccinations, state media said Thursday.

“We have started receiving reports of deaths due to a suspected measles outbreak (last) Tuesday and the numbers are continuing to grow,” health ministry disease control director Portia Manangazira was quoted as saying by the state-run daily, The Herald.

“The persistent refusal (of immunisations) by some segments of society means these closed communities have large numbers of unvaccinated children,” Manangazira said.

Members of some apostolic sects in the country shun vaccinations and all other forms of Western medicine, saying it contradicts their belief in supernatural powers.

here

[rwenzori]

Thankfully the tendency to “shun vaccinations” will work itself out of human genetics by natural selection.

[Peter_Grant]

These are those happy-clappy bunch right? Bloody American Christian evangelism! >:(

[Julian]

I’d like to think that the parents would be locked up for criminal negligence, but they’ll probably get away with it because their stupid beliefs need to be respected.

[wandapec]

@Julian post:4

I’d like to think that the parents would be locked up for criminal negligence, but they’ll probably get away with it because their stupid beliefs need to be respected.

That’s exactly the problem - they will get away with it. If you are a small community living in a remote corner of Matabeleland, 100km from the nearest petrol station and a bunch of missionaries pitch with food and the promise of developing infrastructure etc. … provided you follow their rules, the result is inevitable!
I grew up in Zim and did my A-Level finishing in 1990 (Which doesn’t seem too long ago, but I’ve now been out of school longer than I was in school! :-\ ), but the science education was good. In fact I didn’t know what creationism was until I went to varsity in SA; I did go to boarding school and it was compulsory to attend the Sunday evening church service every week - it may have been mentioned then but I so wasn’t paying attention, I guess! I think the education in the schools is still pretty good but after what has happened in the country over the past 10 years - the rural areas have really taken a knock.

[Brian]

Maybe the JW’s will either evolve into superbeings, immune to all diseases or die out through stupidity (wtf!!)