On World Polio Day, we must understand how we have to finish the Polio eradication job. See how Rotary became the heart and soul of Polio eradication.
While 40 years ago, Polio had been eradicated from the developed world, over 1,000 children a day were being infected by this disease which usually severely disables if not kills children, usually under the age of 5.
The discovery of the so-called Salk and then the Sabin vaccine in 1957 had offered new possibilities: the immunisation of children using a very simple, easy to administer vaccine. What was needed was a massive army of volunteers to administer the virus - boots on the ground. This is where Rotary came in.
A Rotary Club in Italy started a project to immunise children in the Philippines which kicked off Rotary's involvement for a national immunisation project in 1979 to immunize 6 million children in the Philippines. By 1985 the project developed into a Rotary Foundation global objective - the very ambitious global eradication of polio. Rotary leaders pursued a grand vision and eventually overcame all obstacles in setting Rotary on a course that, more than thirty years later, is set to achieve the most incredible public health victory the world has ever seen. Read more about the Countdown to History and how Rotary is helping to EndPolioNow.
By 1988 the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has involved Rotary, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the Centre for Disease Control and, more recently in 2000, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and over 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated world-wide. None of these organisations, on their own, could be successful in this lofty aim however, together massive progress has been made.
The number of cases have fallen rapidly from over 360,000 per year to 33 cases in 2018 - see updated statistics every week. However three things must be kept in mind:
- we need to keep going to the bitter end to eradicate the last case before we can sit back, otherwise our work will be undone and the number of polio cases will revert to the hundreds of thousands within 20 years.
- the so called anti-vax campaigns in the West have led to parents being wary of vaccinating their children due to FALSE CLAIMS related to a specific doctor's study in the U.K. which was proven to be false. This has already resulted in a drop in the number of vaccinated children each year and now the United Kingdom has lost its Measle Free status.
- For the first time in history, the number of Polio cases in 2019 has increased. After a steady year-on-year decline, as of 16 October 2019, we are at 88 cases - Pakistan and Afghanistan being the only remaining Polio-endemic countries.
We must finish the job.
Watch the Dare to Dream documentary which tells the story of how a small group of visionary Rotary leaders dared to set a breathtaking goal of eradicating polio for all of the children of the world. In doing so, they laid the groundwork for the single most successful public health coalition in history. This film gives Rotarians, and non-Rotarians, the back-story to the incredible decision to eradicate polio.
Successive RI Presidents along with a few other extraordinary Rotary leaders pursued a grand vision and eventually overcame all obstacles in setting Rotary on a course that, more than thirty years later, is set to achieve the most incredible public health victory the world has ever seen. We hope you enjoy the show but, more importantly, help spread the word of how, together, we can change the world.
In this video interview with Bill Gates, see why the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has partnered with Rotary.
