Rotary To The Rescue
By John Swartz
An event happened today in a land far, far away, Africa, which Orillia residents played a part in. Let’s rephrase that, an event didn’t happen, there have been no new cases of polio on the continent of Africa for three years.
Today the BBC carried a story the Africa Regional Certification Commission (part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a public-private partnership led by national governments and partners – the World Health Organization, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) declared Africa polio free.
Rotary clubs like Orillia’s have been raising money and contributing man-hours for three decades in dedication to eradicating polio world-wide.
“It shows that what Rotary is doing, and other service clubs like that, it’s worth it in the end because you do get results and it shows working long enough there are positive results that will come from that,” said Rotary Club of Orillia president Laura Downing.
Tony Telford has been for a number of years the point man for the club on the polio file and he gives a monthly update to members about fundraising and developments. The day’s news was uplifting.
“It was wonderful. It was absolutely glorious. One down, two to go. How could you not feel better,” Telford said.
There are two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, left in the world where polio is still a thing. Efforts there, and in Africa, specifically Nigeria, have had a tough row to hoe because of superstition, warfare and religious opposition.
“It’s a ton of money and a ton of work by the local people, and in not very nice conditions. These people are on the line going out to try and inoculate the children,” Telford said. “It’s mostly local women that go out knowing full well they may not come back that night. That’s pretty sobering. We had 8 people murdered last year,”
Bill Hagborg, of North Bay, is the past District 7010 governor of Rotary (of which Orillia’s club is a part) and he was in town Wednesday for the regular lunch meeting of the Rotary Club. He said it’s important to keep up with the work.
“The fantastic thing is we are still engaged, we’re still committed to seeing the end of polio. The fundraising is still going very strong. We had to raise $50 million last year to get the match from the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation and Rotary accomplished that,” said Hagdorg.
He was accompanied by the current district governor, Lynne Chant of Ennismore, Ontario.
“We’ve been waiting for this for years and I’m so excited,” she said. “From the time that the last case is detected until it is actually announced it is wild polio virus free takes three years for that to happen and today is the day of the 3rd year.”
The term ‘wild’ is an important distinction. There are still cases in Africa, 177 of them, but those developed from the vaccine. A very small percentage of cases (1 in 750,000) develop from mutations of the crippled virus in the vaccine occurring after vaccination, but at least the medical community knows where the disease is coming from in those cases.
To achieve eradication 95% of a population needs to be vaccinated. While many credit Jonas Salk with the vaccine, it was created by Hilary Koprowski in 1950. Serval million Polish children were inoculated between 1958 and 1960. Salks’ vaccine was developed in 1952, however Albert Sabin developed an oral vaccine which is the dominant form today. In both the Salk and Sabin cases, three doses provide immunity for 95% of those vaccinated.
Orillia Rotary member Ralph Cipolla has been part of the effort for the entire term of his 43 year club membership.
“I am so proud to be a Rotarian because of that,” Cipolla said. One of the fundraising methods comes out of club member’s pockets directly. “When we have a speaker, we put aside enough money to inoculate 30 children.”
It also the case club members roll up their sleeves and help with inoculations.
“I’ve been in Africa, back in the 80s, helping with polio as well,” said Cipolla.
It’s not just an Orillia thing, eradicating polio is a mission of Rotary International and all clubs contribute to the Polio Plus fund in various manners. Gary Swartz (related) is the past president of the Rotary Club of Cary Page in Cary, North Carolina.
“We do the same thing. We collect change all the time and periodically turn that in to the polio fund,” he said. His club also has a 50/50 draw at each meeting, members pay $1 as they join the meeting, and pay another $1 each time they want to speak in any manner. Half of the pot goes to the polio fund.
His club also contributes to the Paul Harris (Rotary founder) Fellowship and that also funds the polio eradication effort.
“The interest off of that fund, which is huge, hundreds of millions of dollars, gets invested into polio and a number of international types of focuses, so you have money that rolls up to the larger international organization that funds broad international programs like polio,” Swartz said. He was pleased to hear the news about Arica today.
“That’s gratifying. There’s only one or two countries in the world that still have polio. Once those ones are gone, if you can completely eradicate it then it’s never coming back. That’s the goal.”
This year has been a challenge. The current pandemic has become a dual focus for Rotary. They are using their expertise raising money and mobilizing action to help with COVID-19.
“It’s still ongoing. We’re still going to be working at it. The only thing is we’re taking a little bit of a step back from actually administrating the polio drops because we’re using our infrastructure in Rotary to help fight COVID as well, but we’re not going to forget polio. We have to eradicate that because if we don’t it’s just a plane ride away to come back here,” said Chant.
The pandemic has halted inoculations, but our local club isn’t throwing in the towel. “Who knows what can happen while they are not able to inoculate the kids, but once they get back at it again we’ll get hose last two countries,” said Downing. Africa, and the rest of the world are not out of the woods yet.
“Once a country has been deemed polio free and, hopefully soon because we’re really close, once the world is deemed polio free there still has to be inoculations for a certain number of years to ensure it stays that way. You just don’t stop inoculating and go yea; you do have to continue it for a certain number of years after,” said Downing. And the fundraising will continue. Last year the club sold buttons at Canadian Tire, previously they held walk-a-thons, and if it appears to be safe, they will continue with their annual October fundraisers.
“Every year there’s something different we are doing for polio,” Downing said. There are even bigger partners Rotary has on tap. “The Canadian government helps with polio. They have said they are giving a certain amount every year to polio.”
Telford believes the will is with all Rotary members to fight on.
“Hopefully, within the next three years, given the world conditions right now, we’re going to get there. We bank our lives on it.”
(Photos By Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
