I was privileged to be one of his recruits. India had its
last case of wild virus poliomyelitis in 2011. The World Health Organization (WHO)
declared it to be polio free in 2014. Scott and his Rotarian special forces
absolutely deserve some of the credit for the massive and heroic immunization effort
that led to the eradication of polio in this incredibly challenging
environment.
The fight or the race, as I like to think of it, is not
over. We could and should be in the last lap. Scott, however, has accepted a
new challenge, to be our next District Governor. He has passed the Polio Plus
baton on to me. I’m not a surgeon or a soldier. I was in the Public Health
Service at the Centers for Disease Control during the Viet Nam War. My goal,
then and now, is to eliminate infections that rob adults, children, and infants
of their lives and livelihood. It’s an honor to be a part of the enormous
willing, determined, and generous Rotarians who literally plan to run this
awful disease into the ground. But it won’t be easy.
In India, every other country, even our own, we must
maintain high levels of immunization in young and previously unimmunized
children to protect them from the introduction of polio virus from a country
where the virus is still endemic. There are now only two countries, Afghanistan
and Pakistan, where this is the case. Fortunately, there have been only 8 cases
in those countries this year, but that means there have been hundreds of
asymptomatic infections in children who have acquired and may have transmitted
the virus.
If eradication is to succeed there as it must, there are
enormous hurdles to overcome. Much of the population is poorly educated and
without access to diagnostic, preventive or clinical care. The governments have
extremely limited resources and are unstable and ineffective in many parts of
their countries. Some local leaders are
dubious or even antagonistic about an outside intervention. Closing this last
gap will be especially hard and tremendously expensive. The effort to bring
polio vaccine to infants and children in the small villages and cities of
developing countries pays unexpected dividends. It often entails building
clinics where volunteers and staff provide other vaccinations and clinical
treatment.
On June 12th, global health leaders announced $1.2 billion
in funding for polio eradication to 30,000 Rotarians at the
Rotary International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. At
this pledging event, Rotary committed a further $150 million over three years
to the cause. The Gates Foundation agreed to match this 2 for 1 and contribute
$300 million. This will help protect more than 450 million children from
the virus each year through vaccination and disease surveillance. That must
continue for several years even after no further clinical cases are identified.
That will ensure that children are protected until we are absolutely sure that
the virus has been eradicated from human beings and from water and sewage. The
new Director General of WHO, Dr. Tedros, said at our convention: “The end of polio
is now in sight. This is the most critical moment of covering the last
mile. We must keep our eyes firmly on the final goal.”
Joining us in our effort, the leaders of the G20
committed in their first Declaration on Global Health, “to strive to fully
eradicate polio”. The Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel,
emphasized the benefits of preventive measures for the people and economies of
all countries, especially the developing ones. The eradication of polio is
projected to lead to savings of US$ 20 – 30 billion by 2035, making it an
example of the economic impact that can be achieved through a focus on health.
~ Jay Jacobson, M.D., Emeritus
Professor, Infectious Disease, U of Utah School of Medicine, Assistant District
Governor, Salt Lake City Rotary Club
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