“Thanks for Life” - Being on The Radio (Again!)

Time to sing the praises again of the terrific volunteers who run our local radio stations Hillingdon Hospital Radio (www.radiohillingdon.co.uk) and Hayes FM (www.hayesfm.org), our local community station. As part of our Polio Eradication “Thanks for Life” initiative we’re making every effort we can to tell people what we do. So this week I’ve been on Hillingdon Hospital Radio on Tuesday and Hayes FM on Thursday. Thanks to presenters John Stanley and Gordon Baxter respectively for the welcome, the airtime and the very smooth way they handled it all. In case you missed it (and why did you?) the link below will take you to the full interview.

Eradicating Polio – a Work in Progress for 20 years

It’s now more than 20 years since Rotary International teamed up with the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and the US Centre for Disease Control to rid the world of poliomyelitis. This crippling disease, mostly affecting children, at that time claimed almost 1,000 children EVERY DAY. Now thanks to the efforts of 20 years, there are less than 1,600 cases per year and Polio remains endemic in only 4 countries in the world.

How has this been achieved?

In 1955, Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio, using deactivated virus. Albert Sabin followed in 1963 with an easy to administer oral active vaccine, which is also highly effective. Routine vaccination for polio is standard in many countries as a result. The last case of natural Polio infection in the UK was found in 1982, and ten years ago the continent of Europe was declared polio-free. But the fight goes on: one of the problems is that diseases don’t recognise land borders, so that even though many countries are no longer endemic, cases do occur as the disease (and carriers) cross boundaries to neighbouring countries, particularly those surrounding Nigeria; the ease of air travel also creates risks as well.

Thus the campaign goes on – despite the investment of more than $6 billion over twenty years ($850 million from Rotarians) we must completely finish the task – otherwise the work of twenty years will have been wasted.

Challenges to polio eradication

Health experts agree that these primary challenges must be overcome in order to reach the goal of polio eradication:

- Halting the spread of the poliovirus in the four remaining endemic countries (Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan), which continue to export it to polio-free areas

- Curbing the intense spread of the poliovirus in northern Nigeria and western Uttar Pradesh, India

- Rapidly stopping polio outbreaks in previously polio-free countries

- Addressing low routine-immunization rates and surveillance gaps in polio-free areas

- Maintaining funding and political commitment to implement the eradication strategies

The Final Push

A key feature of Rotary’s commitment to the cause has been the input of individual Rotarians, giving of their time to travel to countires in needof assistance to help administer polio vaccine. Rotary’s own charity, The Rotary Foundation has been consistently committed to the provision of funds. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have saw for themselves the importance of completing the task of eradicating polio. Over the last 2 years they’ve committed into our care $355 million of their money, if Rotary raises $200 million. In a little over a year we reached $100 million of the target (October 2009).

Rotary in Britain & Ireland (RIBI) has designated one week in February (coincident with Rotary’s anniversary on FEbruray 23^rd) for a national effort to raise the profile of this campaign and to raise funds.

The Rotary Club of Elthorne Hillingdon are running a dedicated event in February 2010, during “Thanks for Life” week (a Rotary in Britain & Ireland event), celebrating the work of Rotary in the effort to eradicate polio and pushing us further down the path of meeting our $200 million challenge. A Gala dinner, together with a one-hour one-woman show – Royal Mistresses starring local actress Jean Heard will be held on Saturday February 27^th. (Sorry, you can’t have a ticket, they’ve all gone!) Also on that day, our Rotarians will be in evidence at larger Tesco stores, distributing information and collecting donations (we’ll be at the Tesco store in Yeading). During the month of February we & the other Rotary Clubs in Hillingdon will also have a poster campaign in vacant shops – look out for our massive spread across the junction in Ruislip Manor if you’re in the area from Saturday 6 February.