Uche Okuga introduced our speaker, Dr. Tunji Funsho, chair of Rotary’s Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee. He joins 100 pioneers, artists, leaders, icons, and titans as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People. TIME announced its 2020 honorees during a 22 September television broadcast on ABC, recognizing Funsho for his instrumental leadership and work with Rotary members and partners to achieve the eradication of wild polio in the African region.
He is the first Rotary member to receive this honor for work toward eradicating polio.
A Rotarian for 35 years, Funsho is a member of the Rotary Club of Lekki, Nigeria, past governor of District 9110, and serves on Rotary’s International PolioPlus Committee. Funsho is a cardiologist and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London. He lives in Lagos, Nigeria with his wife Aisha. They have four children; Habeeb, Kike, Abdullahi and Fatima; and five grandchildren.
Dr Funsho's main theme was about Polio in Nigeria.
Joined Rotary in 1985 - as a medical practitioner, he became the chair for Rotary Nigeria’s polio initiative. Dr Funsho recognizes Rotary as the catalyst to achieve freedom from Polio in the country, has cited the efforts and impact of Rotary’s efforts to make Africa as a region Polio free.
In 1988 the World Health assembly decided that Polio eradication was a top priority, but even by 1996 none of the African countries have a campaign in process. Our speaker approached Nelson Mandela and he urged the leader to honor their commitment.
Government commitment and Rotary efforts led to the end of Polio in the region.How was it achieved:
Advocacy was key – partnering with members, leadership and the community to communicate and influence the mandate for Polio eradication. Massive efforts are directed on awareness and this continues to be effective
Major challenges for Africa’ Polio program continuation:
- Anti-vaccination groups
- Low immunization
- Vaccine derived infection – Key issue that needs to be addressed
- Insurgency
- Funding – especially the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan that have an increasing Polio issue
- COVID -19
Key Points to consider: Why funds are required even after the certification: See the pie chart on the type of cost that continues to exist after certification, if we relent now because of the good news then we will go back and this will end up costing us more in cost, and impact in the futureFundraising – Rotary is expected to raise 150 million usd dollars that will be matched 2 to 1 by the Gates foundation. The matching makes donation critical, Dr Funsho, urged Rotarians to donate.
Impact of COVID 19 –
Issues
- Reduction in mass campaigns
- Diversion of funds
- Access to healthcare that was repurposed for COVID use
Positives
- COVID help to get the word out by donning branded masks
- The COVID prevention habits also assist in reducing Polio infections
- We have a return to the mission eradicate Polio worldwide while keeping Africa’s certification
Difference between the injection and the drops. The drops are more effective studies have shown that the combination of injection and drops produces better result. In fac,t the Oral vaccine needs less medical professional when the numbers are high its effective however the drawback is there is a possibility of transmitting vaccine derived Polio. This push is to go directly to the injection based immunization strategy to reduce the possibility of vaccine derived infections.
Carole Berry, Polio Chair for the Brampton Rotary club thanked our speaker.