KANO  -  Zuwaira Muhammad sat beside her emaciated 10-month-old twins on a clinic bed in northern Nigeria, caring for them as they battled malnutrition and malaria. She will have her babies vaccinated if they regain their strength, but for many in Kano -- a hotbed of anti-vaccine sentiment -- the choice is not an obvious one. The infants have been admitted to the 75-bed clinic in the Unguwa Uku neighbourhood, one of only two in the city of 4.5 million run by French aid agency Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym MSF).  Kano has the highest malaria burden in Nigeria, but the city has long been known for a deep-seated suspicion of vaccinations against several diseases. People in the conservative north of the country tend to look to the guidance of their own religious leaders, given in their native Hausa language, over international campaigns associated with federal authorities.  Last month, Nigeria secured 846,000 doses of malaria vaccine in its campaign to fight the parasitic scourge, long a major concern in Africa’s most populous nation. The malaria vaccine, which requires four doses, should be administered to children under one year as part of Nigeria’s routine immunisation schedule, according to United Nations children’s fund UNICEF.  It remains to be seen if Kano can put aside its doubts.  “I will allow them to receive the malaria vaccine when the immunisation starts because I know how bad malaria is,” Zuwaira Muhammad, 26, told AFP. “I almost lost them to malaria but for the intervention I received here,” she said.  Malaria is caused by a plasmodium parasite which is transmitted by the bite of infected mosquitoes.