Rotary Is On The 'Last Mile' Of Eradicating Polio

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 (Bernama) -- Hundreds of Rotarians from Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, the United States, Canada, France and the Netherlands are joining their fellow Rotarians in India, Indonesia and Africa in what they hope is the last lap to immunise children against polio.
Twenty years after Rotary International's PolioPlus programme was launched, they aim to completely wipe out the disease by the end of next year.
From Nov 14 to 20, 70 Malaysian Rotary club members and their families will be in India, which has the second highest number of cases after Nigeria (among the countries in which polio is endemic), to help the Indian government with a Sub-National Immunisation Day.
India once had over 70 per cent of the polio cases but now has only 33 so far this year, thanks to the massive immunisation efforts.
"We have large numbers of resources dedicated to this and we are quite confident," Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia R. L. Narayan told Bernama.
"It is coming down but it is really the last mile which needs the attention.
"Our goal is 100 per cent coverage, particularly in high-risk areas including more community mobilisers, detailed tracking on every child's immunisation status, greater acceptance by some of the communities about the detailed plan of action to involve local leaders and opinion makers." he said.
PolioPlus is Rotary International's most ambitious global humanitarian programme -- to make polio the first disease to be eradicated in the 21st century.
Poliomyelitis is an acute infectious disease which can cause temporary or permanent paralysis and even death.
Since PolioPlus was launched in 1985, Rotary and its partners -- the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) -- have immunised 2 billion children in 122 countries.
The programme also aims to eradicate measles, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and tuberculosis -- all of which are preventable through vaccination.
Back in 1988, polio was endemic in over 125 countries and over 350,000 children were paralysed by the disease each year.
Today, the endemic wild polio virus has been wiped out from all but six countries -- Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Niger, Afghanistan and Egypt. There have been fewer than 1,400 cases worldwide so far this year.
Rotary volunteers from polio-free Malaysia will help their Indian counterparts to convince parents to immunise their children, to administer the drops of oral vaccine and to help health workers keep records of the children and areas covered.
"Each and every child under the age of five will be immunised against polio, whether or not they have been immunised before," vowed delegation leader Dr Ken Khoo, who is Malaysia's Rotary district governor.
Rotary has used various channels to reach the children in India. For example, in eastern Bihar, Rotary asked the district magistrate to instruct health workers that it is their responsibility to make sure that each child receives the vaccine.
Some communities were afraid that the polio vaccine will cause impotency. To counter this, Rotary involved religious leaders from the various communities, who issued a joint appeal in favour of the PolioPlus programme.
Before the immunisation day, the Malaysian delegation will travel 600km by road between Jaipur, Agra and New Delhi, stopping at villages to distribute flyers about the immunisation programme and convince families to bring their children.