|  | by Jack Maxwell Rotary International (RI) is the world’s largest service organization. As of March of 2003, RI consisted of over 1,220,500 Rotarians in 529 Districts in 166 countries around the world. The Rotary club of Bixby, Ok is in District 6110, which encompasses the four corners of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma. We have great pride on D6110 for many reasons. Dr. Ben Saltzman, of Mountain Home, Arkansas remains one of our main sources of pride. Dr. Saltzman was a small town rural physician and he served D6110 as District Governor (1952-1954) and as Director of Rotary International from 1961-1963. As a rural doctor, he constantly reminded RI of the need for rural healthcare throughout the world. At the 1976 Rotary International Convention, Dr. Saltzman suggested that Rotary do something about international Health, Hunger, and Humanity. Within three years, the 3-H Grants began and provided polio vaccine for immunization campaigns in the Philippines, Haiti, Bolivia, Morocco, Sierra Leon and The Gambia. With his persistence, in 1985, RI adopted the goal of worldwide polio eradication by the year 2005, our centennial year. In 1988, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, U. S. Center for Disease Control, and donor governments like Japan, Canada, Australia and the United States joined Rotary in this worldwide effort. Soon, the Bill Gates Foundation joined us. Dr. Saltzman was proud that he had come up with Rotary’s 3-H grant program, which led to PolioPlus. “I wanted to do something to indicate that I was willing to work.” And work he did! When in the Philippines administering the vaccine to the children, the bug bit him to do this worldwide and that became his passion. Dr. Ben Saltzman passed away July 4, 2003, but he remains our shining example of what great work can be done when one Rotarian gets ‘fire in the belly’ and decides that he/she wants to make a difference in the lives of persons less fortunate. Polio still exists in seven countries: Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Somalia. But the incredible fact is that Rotary International has since 1985 all but wiped out the disease. When Bill Gates, whose Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given billions to advance world health, is asked what medical projects he most respects, he often starts with Rotary and “the remarkable job it has done with polio.” Years ago every Rotary Club was an island that carried out service projects on its own. It would have been “close to heresy,” says Bill Sergeant of Knoxville, Tenn., now Rotary’s poliomeister, for anyone to suggest any other form of operating. But in the late 1970s Dr. Ben Saltzman of D6110 and a visionary Rotary president, Australian Clem Renouf, persuaded the organization’s hierarchy that the clubs were wasting their talents by not uniting to attack a major problem. In 1986, Rotary announced a drive to raise the unimaginable amount of $120 million to eradicate the disease of Polio. With that start -- and with the $247 million that was actually raised -- PolioPlus was off the ground. Rotary has now put more than $500 million into PolioPlus and has gathered billions more from it’s partner organizations and countries mentioned above. Vaccines are the first cost, of course. Every child under the age of 5 -- there are 607 million in the world -- needs to receive at least six doses, at a per-dose cost of around 10 cents. Beyond that expense is the logistical challenge of delivering the vaccines. The difficulty of getting desperately poor mothers and children to an immunization center six or more times can’t be underestimated. Rotary takes on much of that work: In war-ravaged Sudan, for example, it has chartered planes to airlift vaccines and staff to the inaccessible southern part of the country. In the Rotary year 2002-2003 Rotary set a target of raising another $80,000 to finish the eradication of Polio in the final 7 countries where under 1,000 new cases remained. Once again, Rotarians exceeded the international goal and raised over $107,000. The seven countries where polio still exists each must pass several tests before they can be declared free of the disease, including having no cases for three years. (In case you’re wondering, the Americas have been polio-free since June, 1991.) Rotarians would love to see some of the seven graduate by 2005, the organization’s 100th birthday. Meanwhile, Renouf is now Sir Clem, knighted for his humanitarian work in connection with Rotary International. For more information, contact:
Jack Maxwell, President 2002-03
Rotary Club of Bixby
Assistant Governor D6110 03/04
Phone: 918-296-0689
Email: jackmaxw@cox.net Back to top
Provided by Jack Maxwell1350 BC: Images throughout history have depicted individuals with withered arms and legs walking with assistance from a staff or crutch. 1908: Karl Landsteiner determines that polio is a virus rather than bacteria. 1916: Thousands of New Yorkers flee the city as one of the largest epidemics of the century occurs, paralyzing 27,000 people and killing 9,000. 1952: 558,000 people contract polio, leaving thousands permanently afflicted. 1954: Nobel Peace Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to John Franklin Enders, Thomas Huckle Weller and Frederick Chapman Robbins for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue. 1955: First inactivated polio vaccine announced by Dr. Jonas Salk. 1.8 million school children participate in trials of the Salk vaccine. 1961: Dr. Albert Sabin's oral polio vaccine approved for use by the American Medical Association. 1974: The World Health Organization begins its Expanded Programme on Immunization to combat measles, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, tuberculosis, and polio. 1975: 49,293 cases of polio reported worldwide 1979: Rotary clubs of Manila, Philippines, fund children immunization initiatives. World certified free of smallpox, the first disease to be eradicated by mankind. 1985: Rotary International launches a global health campaign to aid international agencies in immunizing children in developing countries. PolioPlus is the first and largest internationally coordinated private sector support of a public health initiative. 38,637 cases of polio reported worldwide 1988: Rotarians around the world raise more than US$246 million in PolioPlus funds which will grow to almost US$500 million by 2005. 1988: The 160 member countries of the World Health Assembly set the goal of eradicating polio worldwide by 2005 — Rotary's 100th anniversary. Public sector partners in the global eradication effort include the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 35,251 cases of polio reported worldwide 1991: Massive immunization campaigns take place in Central and South America. Luis Fermin Tenorio, a toddler from Peru, is identified as the last polio-stricken child in the Americas. 13,508 cases of polio reported worldwide 1993: China holds its first National Immunization Days (NIDs) against polio for 80 million children. Rotary has helped to immunize more than 500 million children against polio by this date. 1994: It's official: the Americas are certified polio-free! 8,641 cases of polio reported worldwide 1995: Nearly 300 million children receive OPV during NIDs conducted in 51 countries including China and India. This represents almost 50% of all the world's children under the age of five. 7,035 polio cases reported worldwide 1996: 26 sub-Saharan African countries hold coordinated NIDs against polio, signaling the beginning of the last push against the crippling disease. Over 50 million children are to be immunized. 150 polio-free countries worldwide 1997: More than 260 million children are vaccinated in nine countries in Asia. 5,186 cases of polio reported worldwide 1998: In India more than 100,000 Rotary members, their families, friends and co-workers joined the Indian Government in immunizing 130 million children on one day — the largest public health event ever in the world. 90 percent reduction in polio cases since 1988 1999: Liberia holds its first National Immunization Day, signaling the last polio-endemic country in the world to conduct mass polio immunization drive. 2000: Western Pacific region is certified polio-free. Fewer than 3,500 reported polio cases reported worldwide 2001: In April 2001, partners of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative announce that polio is down 99 percent from 1988 when the initiative was launched. Fewer than 600 reported polio cases reported worldwide 2002: Europe becomes the third region of the world to be certified polio-free. Although isolated, the number of cases increased. Reduction of Polio endemic countries to 7 (India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Somalia, and Niger) An increase to 1834 reported polio cases worldwide 2003: Rotarians exceeded the goal of US $80 Million by raising over US $107 million to eradicate the remaining polio cases cornered in 7 countries. 2005: Anticipation of a polio-free world.
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