Faribault Daily News
World Polio Day is Oct. 24. This day was established in 1988 to commemorate the birthday of Jonas Salk who created the first vaccine for the disease poliomyelitis. Polio is a disease of children causing permanent paralysis — there is no cure. It was recognized in Minnesota in the early 1900’s but reached epidemic levels in the 1940’s and ‘50’s. In 1946 the disease was so widespread that hospitals became over run, swimming pools were closed and Minnesota State Fair was canceled.
In 1955 the Salk vaccine was developed and by 1967 Minnesota recorded it’s first year without a new case of polio and in 1979 the United States was declared polio free and entire western hemisphere was free in 1994.
In 1988 Rotary International initiated a program and effort to make the world polio free. At that time there were 350,000 new cases in more than 200 countries in the world every year. Rotary partnered with WHO, U.S. Center of Disease Control, UNICEF and Gates Foundation to rid the world of this devastating paralytic disease of children. The goal was to vaccinate every child in the world under five years of age. Since that time Rotary has led the charge to raise nearly twenty billion dollars, worked in 200 countries and championed more than twenty million volunteers who have vaccinated over four billion children.
The effort has paid off. Two of the three strains of the polio virus have been eliminated. We now have only two countries with wild polio virus — Pakistan and Afghanistan. Together these two countries have nearly 300 million people, ongoing conflict and a very difficult terrain making it really hard to reach all the children.
In 2019 Faribault Rotarian Dr. Dick Huston went to Pakistan to vaccinate children. He was hosted by Rotarians in Pakistan and saw first hand how hard they are working to reach all the children. He centered in Karachi, which is a city of 25 million and witnessed some of the most destitute living conditions one could imagine. It was in this environment he joined Pakistani men and women placing the two drops of vaccine on the tongues of babies and young children. They vaccinated children on buses, on trains, in neighborhoods, clinics and slums. The dedication and gratitude was beyond anything he had previously been a part of.
Clearly the goal is to have these two countries become polio free. This can only happen once they go three consecutive years with out a new case. Nigeria is the last country to be declared free.
Rotary’s polio free effort is helping in other ways by creating jobs, improving health care, preventing other diseases and promoting clean water.
Rotary’s effort will not stop until the world is rid of polio. WE ARE SO CLOSE!
To view our latest eEdition, click the image on the left.