Winning the fight against polio
FOUR members of the Rotary Club of Sleaford have just returned from India after taken part in that country's seventh National Polio Immunisation Day.
President Norry Bell, accompanied by Rotarians Stephen Bath, Andy Dunlop and David Leech, along with other Rotarians from all over the world, took part in the massive task of targeting the 170 million Indian children aged five and under.
The operation, funded by the Indian Government, the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and Rotary International, cost 85 million and is the latest in a series of immunisation days to finally eradicate polio from India and, eventually, the rest of the world.
After briefing in the capital, Delhi, the team from the
Rotary Club of Sleaford travelled to the city of Karnal, 100 miles to the northwest.
Well off the tourist routes, Karnal is seldom visited by Westerners and never by a Rotary Club from outside India.
The Sleaford team, in their bright yellow shirts and 'Polio Free India', hats were a major attraction throughout their visit.
The Immunisation Day had been well publicised and the opening ceremony in the city centre attracted large numbers of TV and newspaper reporters.
Following the ceremony, the team dispersed to the immunisation booths and joined the medical staff there for the rest of the day to promote the need for polio immunisation and to help administer the vaccine.
Every child who came to be vaccinated received a gift from the Rotarians, who had carted out to India huge amounts of lollipops, toothbrushes, pens, and the most popular of all, balloons!
On the second day, the team joined in the 'mop-up' process, touring round every street and every house in the district, ensuring all children of a vulnerable age had been vaccinated.
"That second day was a real eye-opener," said Norry.
"Touring round we visited truly squalid areas and came across hundreds of street children, filthy, bare-footed and in rags, living in conditions ripe for the transmission of the polio virus."
Since 1985, when 350,000 new cases of polio were recorded round the world, Rotary International's contribution has helped reduce that figure to just 1500 in 2009, half of them in India.
Norry added: "That averaged over 60 a month but January 2010 started off with just eight new cases across the whole of India. That's a very positive and hopeful sign but we mustn't relax if we are to achieve the aim of a polio-free world."
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Sunday 05 February 2012
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