Rotarians have been working world wide to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Polio has been wiped out in the United States, but in third world countries, Polio was threatening millions of children. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever.
As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Rotarians have helped to reduce polio cases by 99.9 percent since Rotary’s project to vaccinate children in the Philippines began in 1979.
Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and millions of volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, it is estimated that polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year. The goal is almost reached with Rotarians including such philanthropists as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation participating in this world wide effort. This effort includes investing over 100 million dollars each year by providing polio oral sera to over 400,000,000 children each year. Last year, less than 100 polio cases were encountered. This year, it is substantially lower. However, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered that polio immunization efforts be enhanced after the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region reported its first case of the virus in seven years this week, the premier’s office said on Thursday.
Rotarians have a way of showing that a baby in a third world country has received the sera. Their little pinkie finger is colored with a permanent purple ink which will last for a few years. The polio oral sera program is oriented at these infants with older kids not receiving the Polio sera since the program should have inoculated the older kids when they were months old.
Rotary has learned to work with local organizations because trust in the program is earned that way! The best way to achieve that in third world countries is to work with the local religious organizations and village leaders. Local politics does matter when it comes to achieving great results with these vaccination programs.
Rotarians are determined to completely eradicate Polio from the world. Once there are no cases, then the Polio oral sera will still be distributed throughout the world for another three years to ensure Polio is gone forever. This determination to eradicate a crippling disease is renewed each year in June and July when new leadership within Rotary Clubs occurs. The effort is well worth a world completely free of Polio. Polio respects no borders nor classes of people including Presidents of the United States.
For more information on Rotary, contact Ron Saikowski at rsaikowski@comcasat.net.Â
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