Rotary VS Polio: A timeline

This Story is from TRF web page “End Polio Now”, by Don Klug         

 

Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever. As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we've reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.

 

Rotary members have contributed more than $2.5 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 123 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.

 

Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year. Polio remains in just six countries: India, Niger, Nigeria Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

1955 Jonas Salk declares vaccine safe and effective.

1960 US Government licenses Dr. Albert Sabin vaccine for use.

1979 Rotary International initiative to vaccinate 6 million children in the Philippines.

1985 PolioPlus initiative begins and includes both vaccine and water projects to eradicate polio..

1988 RI, WHO, GPEI partnership launched. There exists 350,000 cases of polio in 125 countries.

1994 USA declared polio free.

1995 The ‘partnership’ assists in delivering immunization to 165 million children in China and India in one week.

2000 & 2003 500 million children receive vaccine and TRF raises $119 million to surpass $500 million raised.

2006 Polio remains in just six countries: India, Niger, Nigeria Afghanistan and Pakistan.

2009 Rotary's overall contribution to the eradication effort nears $800 million. In January, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledges $355 million and issues Rotary a challenge grant of $200 million. This announcement will result in a combined $555 million in support of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

2011 Rotary welcomes celebrities and other major public figures into a new public awareness campaign and ambassador program called "This Close" to ending polio. Program ambassadors include Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu, violinist Itzhak Perlman, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Bill Gates, Grammy Award-winning singers Angelique Kidjo and Ziggy Marley, and environmentalist Dr. Jane Goodall. Rotary's funding for polio eradication exceeds $1 billion.

2012 India surpasses 1 year without a recorded case of polio and is removed from the list of countries where polio is endemic. Polio remains endemic in just 3 countries. Rotary surpasses its $200 Million Challenge fundraising goal more than 5 months earlier than expected.

2014 India goes 3 full years without a new case caused by the wild poliovirus, and the World Health Organization certifies the South-East Asia region polio-free. Polio cases are down over 99% since 1988.

 

2020 The World Health Organization certifies the African region wild polio-free, and certifies the South-East Asia region polio-free. Polio cases are down over 99% since 1988.

 

February 2020- We left you last February with a story from Pakistan at a busy toll plaza in Kohat, where a three-member Rotary vaccination team is working to vaccinate children as cars and vans screech to a stop on a busy highway.  A van stops and a young child is handed to the vaccinators through one of the rear windows. He is quickly inoculated with two drops of oral polio vaccine. The van speeds off, fading back into the dizzying hum of traffic, as the vaccinators look for the next car and the next child.

Polio Eradication is now a priority by Pakistan. A national emergency has been declared to interrupt polio transmission and achieve the goal of eradication by immunizing every child less than 5 years of age.