To the Editor:

Our speaker at Bethel Rotary’s Zoom meeting this week was Ann Lee Hussey, a Rotarian and a polio survivor. She was inspiring and reminded us of the history of the fear and uncertainty that prevailed in past epidemics and highlighted the role Rotary’s global polio eradication infrastructure has played in allowing so many developing countries to pivot quickly to fighting COVID-19 and past threats like Ebola.

October 24 is World Polio Day, so this is a good time to give to Rotary’s PolioPlus campaign.

Although it currently circulates in only a few countries, polio is highly infectious and spreads rapidly. The disease, which afflicts mainly children, is transmitted via contaminated water and food supplies. Five to 10 percent of cases are fatal. As long as polio threatens even one child anywhere in the world, children everywhere are at risk. Only the global eradication of polio will ensure that no child ever again suffers its devastating effects. At the end of the 1980s, more than 350,000 children were paralyzed by polio every year. Today, Rotary and its partners have reduced the incidence of polio by 99.9 percent. However, until we see the last of the poliovirus, eradication efforts need additional funding to: IMMUNIZE more than 400 million children against polio every year; IMPROVE disease surveillance systems to detect any poliovirus in a person or the environment; HIRE more than 150,000 health workers to go door to door to find every child

To date, 122 countries have benefited from PolioPlus grants. Since 1988, the number of polio endemic countries declined from over 125 to two, Afghanistan and Pakistan. With the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, every $1 Rotary commits to polio eradication is matched 2-to-1 (up to $ 50 million per year).

On average, a child can be fully protected against polio for US $3. Since 1998, Vitamin A supplements have been added to polio immunization activities, helping to avert an estimated 1.5 million childhood deaths. Eradicating polio will generate US $14 billion in expected cumulative cost savings by 2050. The global effort to eradicate polio has already saved more than US $27 billion in health costs since 1988.

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“Rotary was the first organization to push for a polio-free world, and so many Rotarians have been part of fundraising, vaccination, and advocacy efforts. The final steps to a polio-free world are the hardest — and we’ll need the help of every Rotarian, and donations from all sources, to get there. But I’m confident that we will end polio together.” Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Donations to Rotary’s Polio Eradication efforts can be made by sending a check to the Rotary Club of Bethel, PO Box 471, Bethel, ME 04217, with “polio plus” in the memo line. Thank you!

Lucy Abbott

President
Rotary Club of Bethel

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