Polio:
Reaching Every Child Eradication of the disease in India would be a huge step toward ending it everywhere.
Courtesy USAID-NPSP
Courtesy USAID-NPSP
“This year we have seen an unprecedented progress never seen in the program before,” says Hamid Jafari, project manager of the National Polio Surveillance Project. “Strong and well coordinated partnership between the Government of India, WHO, UNICEF and Rotary International has ensured this success,” says Jafari, who has also worked as chief of the polio eradication branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta, Georgia. Rotary International is a service organization established in Chicago, Illinois, 106 years ago, now with branches around the world, including 106,000 members in India. Rotary is committed to stopping the spread of polio from the remaining endemic countries—India, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Rotarians not only raise money to pay for polio immunization, but members travel long distances to help out.
Rajesh Kumar Singh © Rotary International
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rshi and Bilal are sweet 2-yearolds living in the Dhaulana block of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. They smile, coo their first words and cuddle. But neither can stand without aid. A year ago, their families noticed something unusual in their leg movements. Laboratory tests confirmed their worst fears—both children had contracted the crippling disease of polio. High population density, open sewers, polluted drinking water and malnutrition have made such places in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar perfect targets for the poliomyelitis virus, which attacks the nervous system of young children and can cripple them for life. Last year, 42 Indian children became victims of the polio virus. Many will require multiple surgeries to be able to walk. That number, tragic as it is, represents a 90 percent drop in Indian polio cases from 2009 to 2010.
Courtesy WHO-NPSP
By GIRIRAJ AGARWAL
One of these is Ann Lee Hussey, a veterinary technician and survivor of polio from Maine, the northeastern-most U.S. state. She has been coming to India for the past 10 years. She was in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, in November 2010 for an immunization campaign, then led a team of volunteers to help the anti-polio campaign in Nigeria. Hussey remembers her first visit to a clinic in India, in January 2001, where she met with several polio survivors: “One particular girl caught my eye. She was 9 years of age. As I returned her smile I looked down and saw the same, thin right Below far left: A health worker administers polio drops to children in Bihar. Below center: Rotarian V.N. Singh marks a child’s little finger with indelible ink after administering the polio vaccine in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Below: Vaccinators on their way to the Kosi River area in Bihar.
