| Polio
is a highly infectious disease caused by a virus, which principally
attacks children under the age of five. Initial symptoms are fever,
fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiffness in the neck and pain in the
limbs. The disease can cause paralysis, which is almost always
irreversible. In the most severe cases, polio can lead to death by
asphyxiation.
How is it
transmitted?
The virus enters the
body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine, It invades
the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of
hours.
Who are the major partners in this campaign?
The Global Polio
Eradication Initiative is spearheaded by the World Health
Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the US
Centres for Disease Control and
 Prevention
(CDC) and Rotary International (RI)
Supporters of the
initiative include national governments of developing countries;
private foundations such as the Gates Foundation and the United
Nations Foundation; the World Bank; donor governments including
Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Netherlands,
Switzerland, the UK and the USA; corporate partners such as Aventis
Pasteur and the De Beers Corporations. Volunteers also play a key
role; an estimated 10 million people took part in mass polio
immunisation campaigns last year.
How will Polio be eradicated?
There are over
30,000 Rotary clubs with 1.2 million members in 164 different
countries of the world. Rotary began this campaign in 1988 with the
WHO. At that time there were over 350,000 recorded cases world-wide
in 127 counties. That is now reduced to under 500 cases in just 10
countries. The success to date is remarkable. We are now at 99%
success, but that last 1% is crucial. Polio eradication is based on
four strategies:
Routine immunisation
of infants starting with four doses of polio vaccine; mass
campaigns, known as National Immunisation Days; effective disease
surveillance, to find and investigate every newly paralysed child
and determine the cause; and "mop-up" campaigns, often house to
house to ensure that every child is immunised and to break the final
chains of transmission. Without total eradication of the virus, it
will spread again and the costs will rise exponentially.
According to the WHO
there are three main obstacles to successful completion of the
campaign, a substantial funding gap, accessing all the children as
some are particularly hard to reach in war torn areas of the world
and sustaining the commitment to the effort. Of these the funding
gap is by far the most crucial.
Rotary has set a
target to raise $80 million in the next twelve months, in order to
bridge the final funding gap to achieve the successful completion of
the campaign.
How will Polio eradication help other health and immunisation
efforts?
In developing
countries polio eradication is expanding the capacity to tackle
other diseases by building effective disease reporting and
surveillance systems, training epidemiologists and establishing a
global laboratory network.
Tens of thousands of
public health workers have been trained to investigate cases of
paralysis and manage immunisation programs, and many millions of
volunteers have been trained to deliver oral polio vaccine.All are
now more enthusiastic about public health in general, Transport and
communication systems for immunisation have been created and
developed, and a network of more than 140n polio laboratories has
been established. All of these could subsequently be used in the
fight against other diseases.
How are we doing?
The RIBI target for
the year is £3 million. There are 29 Districts in RIBI. As at the
beginning of February, 2007,
Clubs in 1070 have raised over £75,000 and are well on stream to
exceed total expectations.
 |
