Rotarians in D5550,
First, let me wish you a slightly belated Happy Rotary New Year. As we work throughout the year to fulfill 2017-18 Rotary goals it is important to know where we have been!
Some 32 years ago when we took on the challenge to eradicate polio more than 1000 children a DAY on 5 continents died or were paralized by the polio virus. To date only 6 children ( 4 in Afghanistan, 2 in Pakistan) have been affected by the wild polio virus. WE ARE WINNING THE WAR AGAINST POLIO.
Unfortunately 28 children have contracted polio from cVDPV - 4 in the Congo, 24 in Syria. Let me provide a brief explanation.
Two polio virus exist - the wild polio virus which is endemic in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. cVDPV or circulating vaccine derived polio virus is rare and usually is more positive than dangerous. Oral vaccine contains the live weakened polio virus. The vaccine is ingested, the weakened virus replicates in the child’s gut and is then excreted. In areas with poor sanitation, this excreted vaccine virus can spread to other children. This can actually be good because it then immunizes them. When the strain no longer finds susceptible children, it dies out.
The problem occurs in areas of low vaccination coverage. There, such vaccine-derived strains of the virus can continue to circulate as long as they continue to find unvaccinated or otherwise susceptible children. While they continue to circulate, they mutate. Eventually, if they are allowed to circulate long enough — at least 12 months — they can mutate into strains that are strong enough to cause paralysis. Now that you know this, it is easy to understand why so many cases have shown up in Syria which has been war torn for more than 5 years. The solution is for local health workers to immunize children in the immediate area and spread out from there to build the immunity in susceptible children. The conflict makes this very difficult.
The good news from the RI Convention in Atlanta was headlined by the $1.2 billion pledged toward the $1.5 billion funding gap......the additional commitments required to finish the polio eradication job. Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation lead the way with another $300 million to match (2:1) the $150 million Rotary (districts, clubs and members) will donate over the next 3 years. Governments of the world joined to make up the difference. We can be proud of the $100 million CDN pledged by the Government of Canada (there is no provision for matching).
SO, I END WITH A PLEA - AS ROTARIANS CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE ERADICATION EFFORTS - BOTH PERSONALLY AND YOUR CLUB. WE ARE INCHING TO THE FINISH LINE.
I will be back in approximately a month with some ideas.