The fight against polio in India

Vaccine for children

Speaking only a few hours after her return to the island, Marilyn Shaw – the wife of Ivor White, current president of the RC Menorca – gave an insight into the campaign and the impressions which she gained on site.

"We were taking part in India's 'National Immunisation Day', which means that every child under the age of five was supposed to be immunised with polio vaccine on 7th and 8th February", says Marilyn, "altogether this refers to no less than 157 million children. The all-India 'National Immunisation Day' happens twice a year. In the two endemic states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar children under five are vaccinated eight times a year and will continue to be vaccinated until there are three consecutive years with no diagnosed cases of poliomyelitis".

Obviously the immunisation programme is time-consuming and expensive, but Marilyn stresses that it is having a huge effect on cases. "We, as foreign visitors, travelled to India in order to work alongside local people doing vaccinations regularly. Our objective was to encourage, raising the profile of 'PolioPlus' in India, to provide moral support and, not least, to help the local staff practically".

The vaccination campaign on 7th and 8th February has made a lasting impression on the Menorcan representatives. "Just at the two vaccination booths to which we were assigned 327 children were vaccinated", says Marilyn who worked alongside three local Rotarians from the RC of Lucknow Trans Gomti as well as a couple of local health workers. "Huge advertising campaigns promoting the immunisation programme had been run in India's main newspapers on 7th February", she says, "and people responded very well. They were extremely friendly, grateful and happy".

The two booths attended by the two ladies from Menorca had been set up in the slum areas of Lucknow, a metropolis city with over 2.6 million inhabitants. "Women from the slums came carrying their babies in their arms to receive the polio oral vaccination", Marilyn reports, "but we also had cars of rich people stopping in front of us, sometimes with bodyguards accompanying them while they brought their children to be vaccinated". Local staff toured the slums in order to convince even more people to bring their children along, painting huge arrows in front of these homes to show the direction to the vaccination booth.

"The clearly European appearance of us and our fellow delegates from the UK caused much curiosity among local people, contributing further to attract them", Marilyn explains. The children themselves were actually quite happy to be vaccinated. "We had brought small gifts for them, such as balls for the boys and little dolls for the girls. The Rotary Club of Menorca had donated 300 euros which allowed us to buy quite a number of items for the children of Lucknow". Some children were in fact so happy and curious that they tried to wash the ink from their finger – used to mark those who have been vaccinated – and queued a second time for another vaccine and gift.

'End Polio Now'

Beverly and Marilyn found their trip to India highly interesting and rewarding as it gave them the opportunity to contribute hands-on to the eradication of polio. Rotary International is currently striving to raise 200 million US dollars for its 'PolioPlus' campaign, an amount to which the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation intends to add another 355 million.

The aim of this initiative, which Rotary promotes under the slogan 'End Polio Now', is the definitive and global eradication of poliomyelitis. Yet it will be a long time before this objective is achieved. In 2009, a total of 1,595 polio cases were reported in 23 countries, most of them (733) in India. "We must succeed in eradicating this disease", Marilyn comments, "it is also in our own best interest. The way people travel today, polio could easily spread to Europe and turn into an epidemic in our part of the world".