Rotarians fight for 100% worldwide polio eradication

The annual number of cases caused by the most common strain of polio has declined by more than 99.9% worldwide since the Global Polio Eradication Initiative launched in 1988. Local Rotarians want to bring that percentage up to 100%.

Rotary is a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, a public-private partnership with a goal to end polio worldwide. In honor of World Polio Day on Oct. 24 and how close Rotary is to achieving its goal, the Rotary Club of Cape Girardeau hosted speaker John Nanni at its meeting Monday.

Nanni is a member of the polio eradication advocacy task force for the U.S. Congress. He also serves as Delaware and eastern Maryland chairman for PolioPlus, a polio eradication campaign founded by Rotary International.

Nanni is one of 20 million polio survivors. His journey with polio began six months before the vaccine developed by Jonas Salk was widely tested, he said. His diagnosis came when Nanni was 10 months old. He was paralyzed from the neck down for six months.

When he turned 40, Nanni started to feel renewed muscle weakness and was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome, a nerve and muscle disorder occurring decades after a person’s initial polio infection.

“For every child we save from polio, we truly are saving them from a life of pain and suffering,” Nanni said.

According to the World Health Organization, one in 200 poliomyelitis infections lead to irreversible paralysis. The disease mainly affects children younger than 5.

“I truly am one of the lucky ones,” Nanni said. “Polio was one of the most feared infectious diseases so far in the 20th century. I’m sure everyone could agree that COVID-19 is one of the most feared, if not the most feared, infectious disease so far in the 21st century.”

According to Nanni, this year has the longest stretch the world has ever gone without a case of wild polio, the most common form of the disease. Only two cases were reported this year, one in Afghanistan and another in Pakistan. Since Jan. 27, no other cases of wild polio have been reported.

But the fight is not over, according to Margie Simmons.

“If we don’t keep vaccinating (against polio) as more children are born, we’ll have outbreaks in the future,” Simmons said.

Simmons serves as governor for Rotary District 6060. The district represents 50 Rotary Clubs and nearly 2,000 Rotarians throughout eastern Missouri.

Simmons said for a country to be considered rid of the disease, the country must have no cases for three consecutive years.

“Each year, we think, ‘This will be the year it’s finally gone,’ but cases do continue to crop up, so we have to continue with our diligence,” Simmons said.

Rotary’s war against polio began in 1979 with the vaccination of 6 million Filipino children.

Currently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does a two-to-one match for funds raised to fight polio. Whatever dollar amount Rotary International members raise through its PolioPlus program gets doubled, Simmons said.

Cape Girardeau Rotary member Robin Cole, who asked Nanni to speak, called for Rotarians to contribute a penny an hour for a year.

“So that we can continue to vaccinate 450 million in children in the world a year and eliminate this terrible disease,” Cole said.