Thanks to vaccines, the eradication of polio is within reach

In October the Smithsonian magazine published a sobering article on diphtheria a malady that terrorized communities until the advent of vaccines The author reminded us Despite all the progress in preventing and treating the syndrome diphtheria has not been eradicated and still flares up around the world That reminder is not abstract to me During my first year in the Peace Corps in Togo in an extension agent I worked with lost his young son to tetanus after a simple foot injury I can still picture the father s tears Measles another vaccine-preventable condition that had long been controlled in the United States has resurged globally and is far from benign My wife grew up in Togo as the eldest child in her family because two older siblings died of measles on the same day in the mid- s Even the present day new threats emerge Just last month Ebola cases were detected in the Democratic Republic of Congo When an Ebola development appeared in Nigeria in a laboratory supported by the Centers for Illness Control and Prevention CDC that was originally set up to track polio allowed for the contact tracing needed to stop an outbreak These stories illustrate the same truth The infrastructure built for one affection often saves lives from another Related Share of Minnesota kindergartners exempt from measles vaccine has nearly doubled in past years These are tense days even for Americans as access to vaccines and other preventative care becomes more complicated Yet there is hope One global vaccination effort demonstrates what sustained commitment can achieve the fight to eradicate polio When I was in the Peace Corps - Rotary International was in the midst of a three-year fundraising campaign to immunize the world s children against polio that eventually led to the launch of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative GPEI There were four partners in the World Soundness Organization WHO UNICEF the CDC and Rotary At the time more than children were paralyzed by polio each year across countries This year as of Oct there have been cases of wild polio in only two countries Pakistan and Afghanistan In seeing the success and challenges of the GPEI the Gates Foundation pledged to match every dollar raised by Rotary members -to- and the results have been powerful More in recent weeks Gavi the Vaccine Alliance has joined the effort The eradication of polio is within reach just as smallpox was eradicated almost years ago Charles Adams Cogan has been the Rotary PolioPlus company lead since and is a former Peace Corps Volunteer Togo and Fulbright Scholar During that period Rotary Clubs in District including parts of eastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin have raised more than million for polio eradication The post Thanks to vaccines the eradication of polio is within reach appeared first on MinnPost