Every once in awhile I pop into http://www.polioeradication.org/casecount.asp to see how things are going with the global Polio Eradication effort. 
For those of you who don’t know, in the 1980s polio was maiming and paralyzing 1000 children a day around the world. In North America, it was almost unheard of after the Salk vaccine was developed in the 50s. Rotary decided that to celebrate their 100th Anniversary in 2005, they wanted to have done something huge. They wanted to eradicate polio the way small pox had been eradicated through global immunization. It was the largest service project in the world. When I was president in my club in 2008, the latest figures were that there had been only 1307 cases world wide in 2007. Polio was still endemic in a geographic corner of 3 Asian countries: India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and over in Africa, in northern Nigeria. That was exciting. The end was close. But then the virus escaped Nigeria, and neighbouring countries that had been polio free suddenly had new cases. The effort was redoubled. I am thrilled to see that while in 2009 Nigeria had 388 cases, so far in 2010 there have been only 6 cases. India had 741 cases in 2009, but so far only 32. Afghanistan had 38 in 2009, this year only 14.
However, with global travel polio can move around easily. Last year there were no cases of polio in Senegal or Russia; this year there have been 18 and 11 respectively. We can’t take a break from the immunization efforts because wherever there are people who haven’t been vaccinated, there is the danger of polio crossing borders.
Last year there were 1604 cases of polio globally, but so far this year there have only been 638. That’s exciting, but when I looked at the specifics I was alarmed. Only 95 of those cases were in endemic countries. 543 of them were in non-endemic countries; that is, countries where polio is rare or non-existant. I studied the statistics and was even more alarmed. 456 of those cases were in Tajikistan in June and July. I wanted to know why and I tracked down this news story: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20100623/tajikistan-polio-outbreak-100623/ An infected person travelled from northern India, and 456 people were paralyzed. I had a birthday gift. By my birthday the outbreak was over.
Consider this. If Tajikistan had not been infected, the global polio cases in 2010 would be only 182. What a tragedy. A pocket of unvaccinated people gives polio a toe-hold, and when it gets a toe-hold then paralysis follows.
Now we are facing the floods in Pakistan, but Rotary and the WHO health teams are there, locating children and having massive drives to ensure water borne diseases like polio do not destroy the displaced people.
We’re so close, we can’t let up now. We can eliminate polio in our lifetimes! Instead of giving mugs or pens to our guest speakers, my club gives them a certificate that shows we have donated funds to vaccinate 20 children from polio in their honour. What can you do to help the fight?
Check out more information here.
Shawn L. Bird 
trouble in tajikistan September 9, 2010
Every once in awhile I pop into http://www.polioeradication.org/casecount.asp to see how things are going with the global Polio Eradication effort.
For those of you who don’t know, in the 1980s polio was maiming and paralyzing 1000 children a day around the world. In North America, it was almost unheard of after the Salk vaccine was developed in the 50s. Rotary decided that to celebrate their 100th Anniversary in 2005, they wanted to have done something huge. They wanted to eradicate polio the way small pox had been eradicated through global immunization. It was the largest service project in the world. When I was president in my club in 2008, the latest figures were that there had been only 1307 cases world wide in 2007. Polio was still endemic in a geographic corner of 3 Asian countries: India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and over in Africa, in northern Nigeria. That was exciting. The end was close. But then the virus escaped Nigeria, and neighbouring countries that had been polio free suddenly had new cases. The effort was redoubled. I am thrilled to see that while in 2009 Nigeria had 388 cases, so far in 2010 there have been only 6 cases. India had 741 cases in 2009, but so far only 32. Afghanistan had 38 in 2009, this year only 14.
However, with global travel polio can move around easily. Last year there were no cases of polio in Senegal or Russia; this year there have been 18 and 11 respectively. We can’t take a break from the immunization efforts because wherever there are people who haven’t been vaccinated, there is the danger of polio crossing borders.
Last year there were 1604 cases of polio globally, but so far this year there have only been 638. That’s exciting, but when I looked at the specifics I was alarmed. Only 95 of those cases were in endemic countries. 543 of them were in non-endemic countries; that is, countries where polio is rare or non-existant. I studied the statistics and was even more alarmed. 456 of those cases were in Tajikistan in June and July. I wanted to know why and I tracked down this news story: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20100623/tajikistan-polio-outbreak-100623/ An infected person travelled from northern India, and 456 people were paralyzed. I had a birthday gift. By my birthday the outbreak was over.
Consider this. If Tajikistan had not been infected, the global polio cases in 2010 would be only 182. What a tragedy. A pocket of unvaccinated people gives polio a toe-hold, and when it gets a toe-hold then paralysis follows.
Now we are facing the floods in Pakistan, but Rotary and the WHO health teams are there, locating children and having massive drives to ensure water borne diseases like polio do not destroy the displaced people.
We’re so close, we can’t let up now. We can eliminate polio in our lifetimes! Instead of giving mugs or pens to our guest speakers, my club gives them a certificate that shows we have donated funds to vaccinate 20 children from polio in their honour. What can you do to help the fight?
Check out more information here.
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