February 4, 2016 Meeting
The speaker at our lunch meeting on February 4th was Kris Tsau of Rotary International who delivered an encouraging polio eradication update. The year 2014 ended with 359 worldwide cases of polio, but there have been several recent significant developments. Nigeria had its last case of polio in July 2014 and in September 2015 it was removed from the list of polio endemic countries. There have been no new reported polio cases worldwide in 2016, and no new cases in Africa in the last 18 months. India became polio free five years ago. Type 1 polio was eradicated worldwide more than a decade ago, and there have been no new type 3 polio cases since November 2012. Afghanistan and Pakistan are now the last two polio endemic countries, and they ended 2015 with a total of only 73 cases of polio. Due to the civil unrest in both countries populations of people are moving across borders, which has created access to these people while they are on the move, but also presents significant risks. Polio sites have been established at borders between the countries, but this also puts polio workers at risk of being involved in military conflict.
The 2016 Rotary priorities for polio are to focus on eradication in Pakistan and Afghanistan and also to sustain all of the polio free countries. This year will also involve changing from a trivalent vaccine (addresses all 3 types of polio) to an injectable bivalent vaccine (address only types 1 and 3) because type 2 polio is now certified eradicated. Also in 2016 the global polio eradication community will evaluate how the structure, facilities and people utilized to eradicate polio can be used for other purposes. For example, the polio structure, facilities and people were used to conquer Ebola in Nigeria, and can be used for other similar purposes after polio is eradicated.