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| Polio Eradication Update |
Editor: Bob Elliott
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Ed Foster, district secretary, described his personal encounter with Polio when he was younger. He had the mildest form and was fortunate to have a mother that spotted his symptoms right away. He also recapped the Rotary International's efforts that have resulted in 2 billion, that's right, 2 billion! children vaccinated since the program began. There are only four countries with active polio virus. Read on for some amazing facts.
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RI and the World Health Organization react with overwhelming force when a new case pops up in a eradicated area. These efforts are called "Mop-ups" - a targeted campaign to immunize all the children under 5 within 10 miles of the "hot spot". For example, Dr. Pankaj Bhatnagar, a WHO pediatrician in Karnataka India, lead a mop-up which covered nine towns and 542 villages with a target population of 4.2 million children. The effort required 37,000 vaccinators, 4,000 supervisors, 2,000 rented cars, and 18,000 insulated vaccine carriers. The team went door to door and vaccinated 4.2 million children in 3 days!
Rotary of India supplied the communications; preparing 650,000 handbills, 25,000 banners and 6,000 posters.
Reference: Better, A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atue Gawande, in the chapter in diligence.
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Rotary Club of Benton Harbor-Sunrise
