Guest Opinion: Polio precedent shines light on COVID-19 pandemic - The Register-Guard
In 1952 alone, polio killed 3,154 children and left another 21,269 reeling from permanent, disabling paralysis. By 1979, with vaccines having begun in 1958, we saw the last case of polio in the United States.
At this time last year, there were 216 cases worldwide. This year, 2021, only two cases of wild polio have been reported in the world. One in Pakistan and one in Afghanistan. No new cases since January.
But polio is not gone yet.
A bit of history. The first known U.S. polio epidemic occurred in Vermont in 1894, but it wasn't until 1908 that Dr. Karl Landsteiner discovered that polio was caused by a virus. In 1916, a major outbreak killed 6,000 and left another 27,000 paralyzed. Franklin D. Roosevelt contracted the disease in 1921 and, as president of the U.S., governed from the confines of his wheelchair.
In 1928, the first iron lung was developed to help children whose lung muscles needed assistance to breathe.
Dr. Jonas Salk was hired by the University of Pittsburgh in 1947 to work on virus studies, and it was his team's work with the flu virus that led to the development of a vaccine for polio. Tested first on 1.8 million children, it was deemed "safe, effective, and potent" and ready for use in 1955. With its use, the incidence of polio dropped 85% to 90%. In 1961, the oral vaccine was approved, and by 1979, the last case of polio was to be reported in the United States.
In 1985, Rotary International became a key player in the fight against polio with the establishment of its PolioPlus program. Worldwide, Rotarians have donated more than $1.2 billion (yes, with a b). When coupled with 2-to-1 matching dollars from the Bill Gates Foundation, those dollars have purchased vaccines for the children of the world; kits for delivering the vaccines; infrastructure to create the vaccine, store it and manage its distribution; and support for volunteers who give out the vaccine.
With the help of Rotarian volunteers among others, those vaccines have been distributed, eliminating polio in all but the two countries mentioned above. Rotary has immunized 2.5 billion children worldwide. The total cost is only 60 cents per dose.
We have learned much from the fight against polio that can be applied to our current fight against COVID-19: knowledge and processes of contact tracing, community organization and trust development, medical data management and how to protect us from other childhood diseases such as measles.
Vaccines work.
But the fight against polio is not over until the virus is eliminated worldwide.
What can we do?
- Educate yourself and others: Log onto endpolio.org to learn more.
- Advocate: Urge world leaders to provide critical funding needed to end polio forever. Share the message on your social media network. Direct your friends to endpolio.org. Rotary's advocacy has encouraged governments to donate more than $9 billion to ending polio worldwide.
- Fundraise: Make your own donation today at endpolionow.org. Ask your employer to make a matching donation.
- Join others in the effort.
- Be part of the solution: Immunization rates in polio-affected countries are directly impacted by the amount of donations received. According to enpolio.org, "Unless we eradicate polio, within 10 years, as many as 200,000 new cases could occur around the world each year. In the past few years, only two countries have reported cases of polio caused by the wild virus, but no child anywhere is safe until we've vaccinated every child."
Donate at endpolio.org.
Rae LaMarche is a member of the Springfield Rotary Club, Rotary District 5110. She traveled to India in January 2019, just prior to COVID-19 restrictions, where she helped distribute polio vaccine drops to children from birth to age 5.
Submit a letter to the editor of 200 words or fewer to rgletters@registerguard.com. Include your full name, mailing address and phone number for purposes of verification. If accepted, only your name and city will be published. Letters are edited for style, clarity and are fact checked. Please provide any relevant links to your research. Each writer may only publish one letter per 30 days.
Submit a guest view by emailing bomeara@registerguard.com your draft of either 525 words or 725 words, not in between. Include any relevant links to resources and research. Also, be sure to include a short biography explaining who you are, what you do and where you live. Writers may publish one guest view per 90 days
Comments
Post a Comment