Rotary Polio Update

Michael Berger started his presentation by telling everyone that he was from Ohio originally but has been in Texas for 10-12 years now. He is not only a member of the Lake Conroe Rotary Club but has been the Director of the RI "Polio Plus" project for 12 years. During that time, he has participated in several of the polio vacation trips in various parts of the world including both India and China.

 

Michael provide a history of Rotary's involvement in the effort to eradicate polio in the world by telling everyone that Rotary started their effort in 1985 and in 1988, managed to get UNICEF (United Nations international Children's Emergency fund), the CDC (Center for Disease Control}, and WHO (World Health Organization) to join in the effort. Together, these agencies determined that in 1988 there were 360,000 cases of polio in the world. By providing polio immunizations to many of the world's children, by 1993, the total number of polio cases in the world was only 100,000, roughly a 60% decrease in the numbers of people with the disease. In 1994, China took a major step to immunize their whole country of approximately 80 million children. In 1995, India did the same thing for their roughly 87 million children. In 2014, this number had dropped to 359 cases and today their are only 60 cases of the disease known in the world. These 60 cases are in just two countries, Pakistan (43 cases) and Afghanistan (17 cases). The last case in the United States was in 1978.

 

Michael told everyone that we are so close to eradicating the disease that if you compared the original 350,000 cases to a distance of one mile, we would have only 10.68 inches left to complete the mile (eradicate the disease). Michael, also told everyone that to be fair, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has also been a big help by donating $2.00 for every $1.00 donated to the effort. Michael also pointed out that each organization involved plays a particular role in eradicating the disease; Rotary and UNICEF provide the people who go to the countries and give out the immunizations. The CDC provides laboratory and technical help and the WHO acts as a coordinator in the whole process.

 

After this initial presentation, Michael showed everyone some of the photos he took while on a previous trip to India. The photos were of the deplorable conditions in many parts of country outside the big cities where open sewers exist right along side of food vendors selling food to the local people of the area. It is this lack of sanitation that is the root cause of polio to begin with since polio is contracted through waste water that has human feces in it. The photos were very educational concerning the conditions in India.

 

Michael also pointed out the the majority of people in these countries welcomed the polio workers with open arms and thanked them for their efforts. However, the two remaining countries which are mostly made up of Muslims, have many people who still believe the lies that the polio vaccine contains the polio virus or has a human sterilization agent in it. However, the effort continues to convince these people that these are lies and that the polio vaccine does what they say it does.

 

Michael, then told everyone that although the 2016 immunization trips are already full, if anyone wants to get involved for the 2017 campaign they should contact him or Rotary International.