POLIO ERADICATION
In the early 1950’s there were perhaps over
half a million cases of polio worldwide. Of that number fifty
thousand children a year would die from polio and thousands more
would be crippled, paralyzed or suffer lifelong disabilities.
In 1978 the Health,
Hunger and Humanity (3H) Committee of Rotary International
designed a programme to undertake a project or projects on a
global scale. A proposal from the Philippines was received and
approved. Under this, Rotary provided polio vaccine and the
Rotarians of the Philippines mobilized and immunised some 6
million children against polio. It was a huge success and Rotary
decided that this was the kind of project that Rotary volunteers
could handle.
In 1982 after a period of discussions
regarding directions Rotary could take, the Board of Directors
of Rotary International approved the idea of giving polio
vaccine to all the children of the world. The project was called
“Polio 2005” to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Rotary in
2005.
A further period of consultation with some
of the world’s most distinguished medical and public health
leaders followed as a result of which it was estimated that it
would cost at least US $100 million and that 500 million
children would have to be immunized.
Rotary set a target of
US$120 million to raise the funds and the name of the project
was changed to “Polio Plus”. This was the first major
fundraising campaign by Rotarians for a single project. The
campaign was so successful that by 1987 Rotary had raised US$240
million and approached the World Health Organisation with whom
they formed a partnership, along with UNICEF and the US Centres
for Disease Control, with the aim of eradicating polio.
At
that time in 1988 polio was prevalent in 125 nations of the
world and it was estimated that there were 350,000 cases of
polio in the world every year. The first big immunization day
was in Mexico, when 13 million children were immunized. Then
Rotary went to other countries and one nation after another
became “polio free”.
Rotary Clubs became
“Polio Plus Partners” to raise funds for National Immunization
Days. The Partners purchased iceboxes, colourful vests, caps,
leaflets, street banners and many other items needed to mobilize
whole nations to immunize their children. Rotarians and health
workers have to go to the most remote areas of the world by
canoe, camel, horseback, motorbike and every conceivable vehicle
to reach all of the world’s children. Vast numbers have been
vaccinated; for example, in the first two days of a campaign 100
million Chinese children were vaccinated.
Due mainly to internal
strife in some countries a “polio free” world has not yet been
achieved but at the present time polio can only be found in four
countries, not the 125 when the programme first started and
there is less than 1000 new cases each year compared to the
350,00 when the programme started.
There are now over 2
billion children who have received Rotary’s polio vaccine and
are now living a life without the fear of paralysis and death
from polio.
Adapted from a speech given by
Cliff Dochterman, President of
Rotary International 1992/1993 |
