Guest Speaker Report
by
Rotarian Ian Johnson
Wednesday 11 March 2009
Our guest speaker was PDG Lloyd Roever who spoke on the Polio Plus Program. Lloyd was introduced by PDG David Croft.Lloyd advised us that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had given $100 million US to help eradicate polio. At that time the challenge was issued to Rotary to match that donation. Lloyd coordinates several Rotary districts in relation to meeting this challenge.
In addition the Gates Foundation has now donated a further $255 million US to help to eradicate polio. Rotary has been challenged to raise a further $200 million for the cause.
Lloyd wanted to experience the fight against polio at the coal face and chose to go to India for a National Immunization Day.
Rotary International put Lloyd in touch with the Polio Plus Office in India They put Lloyd in touch with District 6990 in Florida which was planning to take a group to India for the same purpose.
Lloyd advised us that the Indian government sets the dates for the immunization days. As an election was looming there was some difficulty getting a definite date so that travel arrangements could be made. Eventually Lloyd was advised that the date had been “preponed” to 1 February 2009. As it turned out the timing was not ideal as it coincided with the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
Lloyd arrived in Delhi on 29 January and was given his Rotary uniform. His group then received a number of briefings which Lloyd found very informative. They then went on a five hour bus trip to Chandigarh whey they spent the night with their hosts. The next day was Sunday 1 February the official National Immunization Day. Lloyd’s team was to spend three days in Colony Five, a slum area. Mothers brought their children to one of eighteen booths manned by volunteers. Each child was given two drops of vaccine and had a finger nail painted to show that they had been immunized. Some lucky children received gifts from Lloyd’s team.
The next two days were “mop up” days. The volunteers went door to door to immunize children whose parents had not taken them to a booth. This is an arduous undertaking as the vaccine is heat sensitive.
There are three types of polio. Type Two has been eradicated with the last case reported in the late 1990’s. A lot of areas were thought to be clear of Type One but reinfection has occurred due to the itinerant nature of many in the population.
It has been found that a person has to be immunized up to twenty times to be fully protected. Infection is from person to person and arises from poor sanitation. For each case reported it is estimated there are two hundred carriers.
Great progress has been made. From 350,000 cases per year the number of new cases has been reduced to less than 2,000 per year. Lloyd is confident that the financial and medical challenges can be met. Lloyd was thanked by Ray McCluskie.