Brian Finley’s topic today was ‘End Polio Now’. He spoke on the history and progress of the Polio Eradication Programme with emphasis on Rotary participation, starting in 1970 with a New Zealand Rotary Club offering vaccination in the Philippines.
Polio is an ancient disease contracted by personal contact, pollution of water, faecal matter and sewage, and is presently more prevalent in children under 5. Some of those affected will show no or maybe flu like symptoms but others will suffer moderate to severe crippling or death. There are three variants of the wild polio virus and the oral vaccine has until recently been given by a combination of all 3 in 3 separate doses.
In 1955 Dr. Salk was the first to create a vaccine using an inactivated polio vaccine given by injection, which is now returning for use in the developed world. This was followed in 1961 by a live vaccine developed by Dr. Sabin, given as a few drops by mouth and is the one used most commonly in the African continent.
In 1988, The World Health Organisation, joining with Rotary and other organizations, undertook the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. The work has been carried out by 10 million highly dedicated volunteers, many of whom administer the oral vaccine throughout Africa by foot or bicycle, in remote hamlets, cities, schools, at bus and train stations, sometimes under hostile conditions, and despite of their armed guards, paying with their lives.
It is important to catch every child in order to eliminate the disease. The birth rate is very high in many areas requiring extreme vigilance and in suspect cases initiating an environmental test of water, sewage and a victim’s stool. There was such a case in Ukraine in 2013 caused by a mutant polio virus. New cases have also been found in Nigeria in areas harassed by Boko Haram.
Over 2½ billion children have been vaccinated and polio has been eradicated 99.9% worldwide. Countries are declared polio free following substantiated reports of zero cases for 3 consecutive years. However polio is still endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, partly caused by fighting and in some cases by hostile clerical influences on the population. For this reason and because the immunization generally must continue to prevent possible resurgence, Rotary is asking each Rotary Club to raise a fund of $2650, mirroring the first donation of $26.50 to the Rotary Foundation in 1917. This could be accomplished by holding parties, dinners or other occasions and placing collection boxes at Rotary meetings and events, as well as in churches, schools, supermarkets, shops and the like. Each $1 donated will be doubled by the Canadian Government and the Gates Foundation yielding a total of $5.00 per dollar.
Funds expended on the Initiative in 2015 were US$500 million. It is thought to require a further $1.5 billion with Nigeria causing a further shortfall. Canada has given US$35 million and is the second highest contributor per capita.
Finally, the infrastructure set up to eliminate polio is now being used in treating other epidemics such as in the case of the Ebola epidemic.
