|
In the early 20th century, polio was one of the most feared diseases in industrialized countries, paralyzing hundreds of thousands of children every year. It is true that most infected people (90%) have no symptoms or very mild symptoms and usually go unrecognized. In others, initial symptoms include fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and pain in the limbs. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs. This is caused by the virus entering the blood stream and invading the central nervous system. As it multiplies, the virus destroys the nerve cells that activate muscles. The affected muscles are no longer functional and the limb becomes floppy and lifeless – a condition known as acute flaccid paralysis (AFP). Soon after the introduction of effective vaccines in the 1950s and 1960s, polio was brought under control and practically eliminated as a public health problem in the industrialized nations. Twenty years ago, a record 550 million children – almost 10% of the world’s population – received the oral polio vaccine. In 2003, TRF raised $119 million in a 12-month campaign to vaccinate children worldwide. At the end of that campaign six countries remained polio-endemic: Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Niger, Nigeria and Pakistan.
TRF’s overall contribution to the eradication effort neared $800 million in 2009. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation issued Rotary a challenge grant of $200 million resulting in a combined $555 million raised to support the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). In August 2020, Nigeria dropped of the pandemic list, leaving only Afghanistan and Pakistan fighting the disease. The eradication of Polio is one of Rotary’s most significant and longstanding efforts. Along with its partners, TRF has reduced cases by 99.9% since 1988, immunizing more than 2.5 billion children against the disease in 122 countries.
World Polio Day was celebrated in more than 125 countries, with various events marking the progressive eradication of Poliomyelitis from the globe. When Rotary and its partners formed the GPEI in 1988, there were 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries every year. Because of the combined efforts of TRF and the GPEI, almost $2 billion has been spent, nearly 19 million people who would otherwise have been paralyzed are walking, and more than 1.5 million people are alive who would otherwise have died.
The infrastructure built to end polio is also being used to treat and prevent other diseases (including COVID-19) and create lasting impact in other areas of public health. While Rotarians congratulate themselves for a job well done, they must remember that: Polio mainly affects children under age 5. There is no cure, but polio is preventable with a vaccine. Until we end polio forever, every child is at risk. According to the Rotary International website, it costs just $3 to protect a child against Polio, but unless polio is eradicated, within 10 years, as many as 200,000 new cases could occur around the world each year.
|
