ZAMFARA, Nigeria, March 22 (UPI) -- One northern state in Nigeria has refused to participate in a national polio immunization program that begins Monday, the BBC reported.
Muslim officials in the state of Kano claim the program was part of a western plot to render Muslim women infertile, an allegation denied by the World Health Organization.
Officials there said they will wait until they can get vaccine from an Asian country.
The northern state of Zamfara boycotted the campaign last year, but is expected to join in this time.
Half of all new polio cases each year originate in Nigeria, and cases have spread out from northern Nigeria to infect people in at least seven west and central African states.
This wave of oral vaccines targets about 60 million children.
President Olusegun Obasnajo was expected to arrive in Zamfara Monday to officially launch the campaign.
