“One case of polio anywhere
is a threat everywhere” emphasised d’Arcy Lunn, Global Poverty Project advisor and ambassador for
the End of Polio Campaign, in a dynamic and thought-provoking speech on March
19 at The Rotary Club of Plimmerton in Wellington, New Zealand.
Polio is our common
enemy. It usually affects children under the age of five.
223 cases of polio were
reported in 2012, only a little more than one-third of the 650 cases reported
in 2011. So far this year only 16 cases have been reported compared with 36
cases for the same time last year. In more good news, India marked its second
year without polio on January 13, 2013.
The annual incidence of
polio has decreased more than 99% since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative
was launched in 1988 when about 350,000 children were infected each year in 125
endemic countries. The wild polio virus is now endemic in only three countries
– Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. Yet, in 2010 we saw the resurgence of
polio in six countries, many that had been polio-free for long periods of time.
If polio exists anywhere in the world it is a threat to everyone, everywhere.
Containment of polio is not an option. Eradication is the only solution.
Without a commitment from
the global community to immunize every last child, this debilitating disease
could start to spread again with a vengeance. All it takes is two drops of
vaccine.
Plus financial support.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently donated US$100 million to the Global
Polio Eradication Initiative through his charitable foundation. The Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed more than US$1.5 billion to fight
polio and, in the past three decades, Rotarians around the world have
contributed more than US$1.2 billion to end this scourge. Since the initiative
began in 1988, 2.5 billion children around the world have been immunised.
Each one of us can help.
We can help by encouraging all the parents we know to immunise their child. And
we can donate to Rotary’s PolioPlus programme. Go to http://www.endpolio.org/
Submitted by: Wendy Betteridge, Rotary Club of Plimmerton www.plimmerton.rotarysouthpacific.org
