December:  DISEASE PREVENTION & TREATMENT Month

Our health is everything. Yet 400 million people in the world can’t afford or don’t have access to basic health care. We believe good health care is everyone’s right.

Disease results in misery, pain, and poverty for millions of people worldwide. That’s why treating and preventing disease is so important to Rotary. We lead efforts both large and small. We set up temporary clinics, blood donation centers, and training facilities in underserved communities struggling with outbreaks and health care access. We design and build infrastructure that allows doctors, patients, and governments to work together.

Rotary members combat diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, and polio. Prevention is important, which is why we also focus on health education and bringing people routine hearing, vision, and dental care.

During the month of December we recognize all that Rotary International and Rotarians are doing to combat diseases through effective treatment and prevention.  It was certainly no small task that RI decided to take on in 1985 when we pledged to eradicate polio.  Only one infectious disease has ever been eradicated before: smallpox in 1979. That was due to diligent vaccination and surveillance efforts; the same efforts that have bought mankind ever so close to the elimination of another devastating disease. An amazing partnership between RI, the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and regional governments is working to make this possible. Although Rotary's top priority is the eradication of polio, our members are taking on far greater responsibilities to fight disease. They set up health camps and training facilities in undeveloped countries and in communities struggling with HIV/AIDS and malaria. They also design and build the infrastructure for doctors, nurses, governments, and partners to reach the one in six people in the world who can't afford to pay for health care.

Although infectious diseases continue to be a major cause of illness and death across the globe, they are not the major health concerns for most developed countries.  Now many people are seeing their lives shortened by chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.  Many of these conditions are not caused by infectious agents but are rather due to certain health behaviors and social conditions.  Rotary’s continued involvement in Disease Prevention and Treatment will thus need to be directed toward finding solutions to these social and behavioral determinants of health while continuing to fight against existing and emerging disease threats.  You as a Rotarian have been enlisted as being a part of that fight. Disease prevention and treatment takes on many forms, from supporting studies to helping immunize people to improving drinking water and the sanitation infrastructure. The world relies on Rotary to tackle these global challenges, and to set an example for others to follow.

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